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Hatchbacks Mazda3 MazdaSpeed3: Styling Impressions
548 messages, Last post on Aug 08, 2007 at 5:21 PM
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Replying to: rorr (Sep 13, 2006 2:51 pm) I didn't even know that About.com and International Gaming News (or whatever IGN stands for) would rate a car test junket. I really want to become the auto reviewer for some website or another so I can test drive cars at Laguna Seca and those twisty roads around Monterey.
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Replying to: seanwms6 (Sep 14, 2006 12:47 pm) Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I meet all the prerequisites - I love cars.....and I can write amateurishly! 
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Replying to: rorr (Sep 14, 2006 1:38 pm)
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Replying to: seanwms6 (Sep 14, 2006 4:45 pm) I think they publish their first draft and then knock off for beer and pizza and an afternoon watching Cartoon Network....  What's sad is we're ragging on these guys but THEY'RE the ones getting to do the first drives (and probably sleeping until noon). And we're not. 
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Autoweek likes the MS3, with the following exceptions: "Brakes are merely adequate; the clutch operates much like a light switch—all on or all off; and the booming exhaust was tiring after a long highway drive, although the kids will probably love it." http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060912/FREE/60911018/1024
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Replying to: ambull (Sep 16, 2006 7:34 am) They loved the car to say the least.
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Replying to: aviboy97 (Sep 16, 2006 1:21 pm) Running nearly 300 lb-ft of torque through the front wheels can be a recipe for torque-steer disaster. Coupled with an electronic torque limiter in first and second gears, Mazda engineers installed half-shafts of differing diameters to thwart the problem and it seems to work. You still want the front wheels pointed straight when you launch the car, but torque steer is managed quite well. What is a half-shaft? Where would they be located?
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Replying to: autonomous (Sep 18, 2006 8:33 am) They are the axle in vehicles with independent suspensions. One comes out of each side of the tranny, or a differential in RWD applications, to drive the wheels. They can be of equal or un-equal lengths depending on the particular setup.
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Replying to: baggs32 (Sep 18, 2006 8:42 am) This begs the question of how different diameter (thickness?) halfshafts would reduce torque steer. The only thing I've heard of regarding FWD halfshafts was making them equal length.
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Replying to: seanwms6 (Sep 18, 2006 9:28 pm) I haven't figured that one out either. I know that torque steer is a function fo half-shaft length as well as suspension geometry. The only thing differing half-shaft diameters would do for you would be different rates of torsional stiffness. I wonder if torque steer is caused (in part) by 'axle windup'. IOWs, torque is applied to the end of the half-shafts at the tranny end but the axle twists (very slightly) due to the grip of the tire. Half-shafts of differing lengths would twist at different rates. Rather than try to get the two shafts at exactly the same length, maybe they make the longer shaft slightly thicker so that both shafts twist at the same rate? I dunno. That's just my theory.
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