Dear mid-60s Buick owners who never have enough torque!
I'm finding myself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to selecting a rear end ratio for my trusty wagon. The latest numbers needed for towing that I'm coming up with would greatly increase the operating RPM on the freeway and therefore would greatly increase the noise. My Mom, who selected the car back in 1968, still occasionally gets driven in this car but doesn't like the noise as it is. So I'm pondering leaving the rear end ratio at the present 2.78:1 and leave the towing problem for some point in the future.
That leaves still one potential issue. The present differential is stock and not limited-slip. I was told if you have an engine that produces huge amounts of torque, that a limited-slip differential was an important safety upgrade. However, I have driven Biquette a fair amount without any problems. That doesn't mean it was prudent, basically that's the question. There is this Wikipedia article which is quite interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-slip_differentialHowever, as best as I can tell, the real issue only occurs in situations were road conditions are slippery. So long as you avoid bad weather (which is easy in California) the limited slip differential doesn't seem as important. So is there some other safety issue involving high-torque engines that I'm overlooking?
A curious mind would like to know!
Cheers, Edouard
P.S. You never know what you'll find in a Wikipedia entry. For example, did you know that the Beach Boys song "409" refers to a limited-silp differential? Even more exciting is that in the 1992 movie
My Cousin Vinny two young men driving a 1964 Buick Skylark was shown to be innocent of murder based on evidence showing that the culprit instead had driven 1963 Pontiac Tempest, which did a limited-slip differential.
I knew you couldn't trust d'em Pontiacs! . . . .