So, in the floor tunnel next to the exhaust pipe, a cardan shaft was installed, transmitting 95% of the torque to the rear wheels. In fact, the “Mini” has become rear-wheel drive with all the consequences for controllability. But the justice of these words ends where the turns begin. After all, front-wheel drives are connected to the main gear via lamellar clutches, which are just waiting for a command from electronic "brains" to intervene and correct the trajectory.
Sensors collect information on wheel slippage, lateral and angular accelerations, steering angle, speed, engine speed - in general, all telemetry. And the computer in a sharp turn will add a moment to the inner front wheel and literally drag the car to the path set by the driver. Something like the ESP is the opposite: instead of braking the wheels, they are tightened up.
How effective is such a mechanism, a stopwatch showed. The twisting track was covered by Twinster at 7–9 km / h, that is, 10% faster than the serial Cooper.
