Torque steer

Power is nothing without control, or so went the saying created by Pirelli’s advertising agency in 1994 to promote its new P6000 tyre – with a little help from Carl Lewis wearing a pair of stilettos. But in a contemporary automotive context, perhaps it would now be more appropriate to rewrite this famous slogan to read: torque is nothing without control.

Because although torque is nowhere near as sexy as power, and the notion of torque vectoring in itself about as seductive as a tin of cold baked beans, the ability to control the flow of torque to the road has become a key component to one’s enjoyment – or otherwise – of today’s many grotesquely overpowered cars.

Today torque has become so easy to come by. Thanks to a combination of turbocharging, electric motors, battery technology and heaven knows what else, the idea of having 500lb ft of the stuff beneath your right foot no longer seems remotely shocking. Some supercars have twice as much and one or two up to 2000lb ft – almost all of which would be unusable were it not for torque vectoring.

So what actually is torque vectoring, who invented it, when, and why does it matter?