How do dual-powertrain cars handle? (Calling Nashco, ansonivan, sporqster)

Someone else on here has a dual-powertrain Swift...can't remember who. I want to say 16vCorey or HiTempGuy.

Anyway, this discussion came up in the other thread...does the lack of differential action between the front and rear axles cause any handling problems with dual-powertrain cars? I guess that since they're not locked at the same speed by means of gearing (the gearing is the same on both axles, but engine revs can be different), the separate powertrains can separately absorb any speed differences in corners, and it's a matter of how much torque the car has. If you had something with separate electric engines on the front and rear axles, too much "gas" could roughly equalize the axle speeds through wheelspin if you were in a tight corner.

So do you get any "truck in 4WD on pavement" type effects with these cars?

Everybody asks that...NO!!! Think of it this way...on a normal AWD car with one powertrain, the front and rear wheels are connected in two places. One way is mechanically through the axles/diff/driveshaft/trans. The second way is the tires through the road (with friction). So the front and rear gearing need to match and you need lots of differentials to prevent funny "pushing" with different wheel speeds/traction.

On a dual powertrain vehicle, there is only one connection between the front and rear axles...the road. That means they're not fighting each other in corners or with traction loss. One powertrain can push or pull on the other through the road, but they don't fight. To each individual powertrain, this acts just like when you are on a hill or have a headwind/tailwind. Except it's a really freakin' steep hill that allows you to accelerate like a boss.

If you get fancy, you can do some REALLY awesome stuff with multiple powertrains, like torque vectoring, to allow for maximum possible deceleration and acceleration while cornering (beyond what a "normal" car is capable of). You can also purposefully cause oversteer and understeer with lots of input parameters such as speed, tire temperatures, track temperatures, weather, etc., like an ultimately tuneable center diff. You're already seeing it with the cutting edge hybrid race cars. It's the future, man!

Bryce

As long as you aren't running solid axles front or rear, I don't see how there could be a problem?