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Ti Performance Package on AWD

9K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  Rutlefan 
#1 ·
Anyone think it is worth it? Comes with active suspension, but with AWD I'm wondering if the limited slip diff is even perceptible.

FYI, the car will be my daily driver, that's why I want AWD.
 
#2 ·
Seems like if you are in Flori-Duh, the AWD would not be useful... I have a TI with performance package and it seems to get good traction (even with the P7 tires).
 
#4 ·
LSD interacts in a constructive fashion with traction control to yield much better behavior than an open differential with traction control.
Without the LSD, traction control more-or-less has to lock the slipping wheel to send torque to the other side. When you move forward to an area where you get better traction the locked wheel momentarily skids, causing the car to pull to one side. I believe this is known as crabbing.

With the LDS, traction control only needs to gently apply the brakes on the slipping wheel to send plenty of torque to the other side. The clutch pack inside the differential will do the rest of the work. There is a reduced tendency to crab and the vehicle remains easier to control.

Keep in mind that AWD provides no braking improvement over 2WD. I'm not sure it helps a lot in general on wet roads. You need narrow tires with deep grooves to cope with flooded roads. Super skinny, high pressure road bicycle tires work really well in the rain, but are terrible on snow or ice.
 
#5 ·
we're in the same boat - i can't believe how horribly these dealers orders their cars, you'd see in a lot of 100Ti rwd or AWD builds, they'd order 90 of them with the useless dual-pane vs. the Ti perf. pkg - which is even less money! having a hard time rightnow find a car with either Lusso/Ti sport + Ti Perf. pkg - and none of the other useless junks. custom order would be less discount and a few months of wait time...1st world problems..
 
#6 ·
Keeep looking though as there were some made that way. Here in SoCal I was able to locate several Lusso + Ti perf pkg and eventually even found the color that I was after w/o sunroof. I also like both the paddles (which I do occasionally use) and the active shocks which I always have on and my wife always has off. I think the package is worth the effort.
 
#9 ·
I special ordered my Ti and have AWD and LSD/active suspension. I second the comments on the benefits of LSD (in road racing it does add stability under braking to have a rear LSD) and I do feel it 'latch up' when accelerating hard from a stop while turning as when entering a main road from a side street. The active suspension is more than just a hard/soft damper setting like my 164Q has. As I understand it, it is a Magnetti Marelli system based on the 'sky hook' concept where sensors monitor yaw and pitch and dynamically adjust the dampers individually. The advantage is a very compliant ride over rough stuff while minimizing squat, dive, and lean. Love it!
 
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#11 · (Edited)
Greg S, that's exactly what I want. In particular my drive requires a lot of pulling out of side streets and making hard 90 degree right or left turns very aggressively because I have to get up to speed fast on busy roads with cross traffic coming at 40mph++

RWD just didn't cut it for me because for example on BMW I had, it had a lot of torque, and if one tire lost traction, the car would just sort of limp forward in the direction I was going and not accelerate hard. Thus creating a dangerous situation of failung to get up to speed so as to safely avoid near misses with other drivers (I live in a busy area.) I learned how to compensate for that.

Moving to Audis w Quattro was a revelation because I always had tires clawing for and putting down traction (and most importantly putting down significant torque at the same time.) Roads where I am are wet at least 3 days a week. My issue is not about having traction at 30 mph, but instead getting the car moving quickly from a stop every time under aggressive city driving.

My Ghibli Q4 is AWD with heavy rear wheel bias. For the type of driving I describe, the traction is great, but the turbo lag at low RPM of the Ghibli is really bad. So I learned I had to account for about a second and a half of really poor acceleration until the Millenium Falcon boost kicked in, which always got me out of a jam.

So, ideally, I'd like the Alfa to accelerate quickly under the peculiar circumstances I describe no matter if all 4 or or only 2 tires have traction and I want rear wheel bias when AWD not needed.
 
#12 ·
Hi BluGiul - I just added the Novitech pedal amplifier which eliminates the lag you mention your Maserati has. Car companies add that lag to powerful cars to prevent Bozos from killing people. The lawyers are happy but we are not.
 
#13 ·
Yes I had the similar gopedal for the Maserati, but it didn't help so much on that car. It made the throttle response faster (which improved response by maybe a quarter or half second) but the Ghibli has sooo much lag at low RPMs that it didn't really have a practical benefit.

But many with the Giulia tell me the turbo lag is relatively minimal, and when you add the pedal booster to speed up throttle response, it is a more reactive car.

(To be clear, I understand that turbo lag and throttle response are 2 separate things.)

I've had pedal boosters on cars before and it typically does provide an improvement, just not enough for the Ghibli.
 
#14 ·
I was reading the owners manual. It sounds like the AWD cars are in RWD mode until greater traction is needed. Then power is transfered forward. This changed my thinking a little. I thought it was 60/40 rear bias, but the manual makes it sound more like 100% RWD with power moving forward on demand.

Does anyone have the staggered wheel setup on a Giulia Ti? Was it not available with the AWD car? I have 225 (8") all around. really thought I was getting the 8"/9" setup.
 
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