One of the most significant things is the use of a much better type of limited slip differential (LSD) which helps you to get the power to the ground more effectively. Up until this version, the only type available was a viscous LSD. The aim of a limited slip differential is to put more torque onto the driving wheel which has the most grip. The viscous LSD relied on the wheel with less grip spinning faster than the wheel with more grip, so that meant that all LFS cars suffered quite a lot from inside (unloaded) wheel spin.

The new type is the clutch pack differential. In this case, there is no viscous coupling, and instead, the differential unit contains some clutch plates between the drive shafts and the outer casing of the differential unit. When you apply torque to the differential (under acceleration or engine braking) the clutch plates are squeezed together, so reducing differentiation and effectively shifting torque from the very slightly faster moving wheel (the inside wheel which is just starting to spin) to the very slightly slower moving wheel (the outer, loaded wheel). This happens much more quickly than the torque shift of a viscous LSD.

In the final drive settings you will see a Locking slider bar. The "percent locking" refers to the maximum torque difference between the drive shafts, as a percentage of the total torque applied. Therefore as you get close to 100%, it's becomes similar to a fully locked diff, and as you get close to 0%, it gets more like a fully open diff (fully locked and fully open differentials are also selectable, for testing or for interest).

In real life the amount of locking is adjusted by changing the ramp angles. Acceleration or engine braking pushes in a different way, so there are in fact two ramp angles - one for power and one for coast. On the XR GT TURBO, you have separate control of these two angles. It makes quite a significant difference to the handling of the cars.

NOTE : This is a TEST of an ALPHA version. We will be pleased to read about your opinions on things and any problems you encounter. Also note that the tyre physics have not yet been updated significantly since the previous version. It's more interesting this way, for you to see the effect of the new diffs, with very similar tyre physics.