On to the good and the bad.
For the record, my '01 just dyno'd at 450, I run 20" PS2's on the rear, and 3.73 gears.
As mentioned previously, this upgrade was not centered around concerns of hp destroying the factory posi, but to assist with keeping the car going straight sans 3.73 gears. I think every stop sign was a slide job when I took off with my 3.07's and the factory Dana posi.
Lastly was the use I stated of the vehicle when being advised of which posi to install. Primary use is on the street, secondary use is closed course. My emphasis has always been that driveability on the street comes first on a street car. The main 2 units under consideration were the OSG and the Q, although there are even further options. I have close to 2K miles on it now. All of that street use.
The good.
I'm not sure if this is good, but I hate to call it bad or ugly. So to start with, the OSG doesn't fix stupid. Yes, street driving and the typical sharp right turn is a perfect opportunity to have a little fun. In short, the OSG won't save you if you don't know what you are doing. I think the factory posi was a little better entering into a sharp right, but the OSG controls the exit better. There always seems to be a little gravel here and there on city streets, and the OSG controls wheel spin there better than the Dana. Once again, still talking about the proverbial sharp right corner. So the moral of the OSG versus the right turn exhibitionist is stupid still wins, but I feel more confident with the OSG than I did with the Dana. I am guessing that most Viper owners view right hand corners as a gift from the engineers that designed the city.
Another area I've noticed an improvement over the Dana is straight line starting from say a stop sign or stop light. Even being careful, with my 3.07's and the Dana the car would fishtail. No my PS2's are not 50 years old. Maybe we need better pavement in my town but I got what I got. The OSG noticeably reduces the wheel spin component and the fishtailing follows. Way less likely to get noticed by PD now when just trying to drive normally.
Moving up the food chain is hard straight line acceleration. The corner has been turned, the car is already rolling. I love pulling out into traffic making that turn carefully, but with minimal room given the traffic load, and then freaking everyone out that a car doing 50 when I was turning never really gets ahead of me. Turn and then nail it. WOT banging gears. I don't do any pedaling and the car stays dead nuts straight. Try that with your factory diff and street tires.
I used to have some favorite spots where at 80 mph in 3rd I could slip the rears, but that has been repaved and my measly hp is no longer entertaining. I would assume however that the same dead nuts straight would now apply. Dana versus OSG respectively.
I know that closed course use has a completely different atmosphere. No cops LOL. And subsequently all the things that I can't do on the street you strive to do on the track. Turns are also way different. Greater radius and/or longer sweeping and so on. I have been playing with being more aggressive on longer radius left hand turns, once again city driving, and the power down comes quick and I like the control so far.
Finally, like many owners that have a car that is primarily for street use, I avoid wet weather driving. During my 500 mile gear break-in period - no aggressive driving - I got caught at the Quickie Mart in a downpour. The Weather Channel was wrong LOL. Anyway, one of the stop signs on the way back home that on dry pavement I do the fishtailing, I decided to momentarily forget I was breaking in my gears. I expected to end up in someone's front yard, but I was mad and didn't care. The car went near perfectly straight. No shrubs to pull from the fascia and 2 hours later the car was detailed.
The bad.
I was forewarned by a member at VA that there would be some "popping" when making turns with the OSG. With one of these concluding the statement -->
. I think that knowledge is what saved me from getting my 15 minutes on CNN after the first "pop."
If you do enough reading on diffs and/or you are old enough to have been around before some of the modern car parts were available, you'll certainly know that a locker or solid rear doesn't work on corners. Duh. Hop hop chirp chirp. The OSG is obviously not a solid rear and is designed to let the outside wheel roll faster than the inside wheel. Duh again. But there is a break-in on this capability of one wheel rolling a different speed than the other. It is called the "pop."
My favorite pop, I came up with a nickname for. The Triple-Bang. Each time the diff pops it is tinkering with the definition of violent. The car jerks when it does it. 3 in a row in the same corner? Triple-Bang. I could even turn the wheel a few degrees and then immediately correct when taking off straight from a stop sign and it would pop. I guess you really don't need to turn the car to get your complimentary pop.
The OSG was sold to me with a statement of being one of the diffs of choice for drifters. A sport whereas the whole idea is to be past the point of traction. What about driving where traction is preferred? Where a loss of traction could be disastrous? I would put sums of money on it that if I had a triple bang on wet pavement the car would step out. Would that happen on a curve or corner as found on a closed course? Wet or dry? Have not been there yet. Just providing you with info that you won't be told before the purchase. Judge your application carefully.
There is a brighter side to all of this though, and that is the popping is way less frequent now at 2K miles. I no longer grit my teeth when turning.
