Electric Torque Vectoring (ETV) vs Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV+) [active limited slip differential] comparison - Pistonheads Review

[Austin_yeahbaby]

Good write up on ETV vs PTV+

Full article at: https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph...orque-vectoring-a-reason-to-be-cheerful/41444

'Electric torque vectoring is faster to react and more precise than combustion engine torque vectoring,' says Taycan engineer, Christian Wolfsried. 'It's maybe ten times faster. But the big advantage is there's no physical connection between the front and rear axles. That means we can make the Taycan's front axle slip [or over-rotate] without the rear axle slipping. You can't do that on a conventional car with hang-on four-wheel drive; it's not physically possible.'

The significance of that? It means the Taycan can be chucked to a 90-degree angle in a corner and if the driver stands on the accelerator pedal hard enough, it'll be pulled back into line. The torque vectoring system will cut drive to the rear end and spin the front motor up as forcefully as possible, dragging the car straight. Try the same in a Panamera, for instance, and the rear axle will have to slip in order to make the front over-rotate, meaning the car probably won't exit the corner pointing in the right direction.

So with electric torque vectoring, you can save much bigger slides than with the conventional kind. Wolfsried ably demonstrated this point by taking me for a pre-dinner dash through the pitch black woods in a Taycan Turbo S with studded tyres. On the little wriggly road that ducked and weaved between the pines, he flung the car to hilarious angles of drift and brought it back into line using that unusual torque vectoring capability.

Of course, a Panamera with its interconnected axles and intelligent four-wheel drive system can send the fullness of its power to either end, whereas a car with two disconnected power units, such as the Taycan, can only ever distribute so much to a given axle. But there's no torque curve to worry about on the Taycan and you'd never need more than one motor's worth of shove to make the car dance balletically.

When an electric car has one motor for each wheel, it can be made to do really extraordinary things. I once watched an Audi RS3 kitted out with four Formula E motors perform donuts on the spot without travelling an inch in any direction. It was effectively spinning like a tank, its tracks pulling in opposite directions. I've also driven the Rimac Concept One as well as the company's Pikes Peak racer, both of which used one motor per wheel. The hillclimb car weighed around 1500kg and the Concept One significantly more than that, but with Rimac's All-Wheel Torque Vectoring activated, both were as agile as cars weighing not much more than a tonne. They also had an amazingly positive way of getting from the apex of a corner to the exit, as though they were being yanked through on a wire. I haven't felt anything remotely like it in a car with a combustion engine.

Electric torque vectoring is exactly what gives me hope - even if only a glimmer of it - that the forthcoming generation of electric sports cars might actually be interesting to drive, rather than just unsettlingly fast. Of course, rescuing 90-degree drifts on an ice driving course, or spinning on the spot, is all well and good. It's up to car manufacturers to find a way to harness this amazing technology to make cars fun on the road in a way that won't get you arrested. It surely isn't beyond them. I don't know if an electric sports car with very clever torque vectoring will ever be as rewarding to drive as one with a howling petrol engine and a manual transmission, but I can't wait to find out.

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[tnikolov]

Good write up on ETV vs PTV+

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph...orque-vectoring-a-reason-to-be-cheerful/41444

indeed a great read! I love the PTV+. It really makes the car so much fun exiting pretty much any corner out there, even at very low speeds

 

[TC Fan]

"You'll need that in the back of your 4S if you want it to vector torque to the fullness of Porsche's capabilities, but even without it the Taycan will pull off stunts beyond the limit of adhesion that no conventional combustion engine machine with four-wheel drive could ever manage."

For those of us who are neither engineers nor gearheads, I take this to mean it's really cool to have on a Taycan, but you will never use it in normal, or even weird, driving conditions unless you are trying to take your own life. However, for those of you who are engineers and/or gearheads, please feel free to explain the error in my understanding.

 

[wmras]

"You'll need that in the back of your 4S if you want it to vector torque to the fullness of Porsche's capabilities, but even without it the Taycan will pull off stunts beyond the limit of adhesion that no conventional combustion engine machine with four-wheel drive could ever manage."

For those of us who are neither engineers nor gearheads, I take this to mean it's really cool to have on a Taycan, but you will never use it in normal, or even weird, driving conditions unless you are trying to take your own life. However, for those of you who are engineers and/or gearheads, please feel free to explain the error in my understanding.

Porsche PTV (computer controlled brakes) and PTV+ (limited-slip differential) are in play with hard acceleration out of any corner and (if perfect) neutralize the car's tendency to understeer. Most driver's can feel it if they look for it and will unconsciously feel it as easier to handle (less fighting understeer). And yes I am a nerd bordering on geek, but mostly just absolutely love great handling cars (GT4, Macan Turbo, Cayman S Black Edition 987.18 (Cayman R in street clothes). TTS on order.

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