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Either way, the tires start sliding when you push them too hard, and I've never had unpredictability with either LSD or open diff. The difference is that LSD is more prone to doing a circle in the middle of the road when it starts slipping, while an open diff is somewhat self-correcting; since the inside wheel has less load, it spins, creating a counter-steer-on-throttle effect that helps balance the car through the corner, kinda like electronic stability control works.
Obviously, both of them can be driven without spinning, and both can spin in a heartbeat; LSD is just a little more twitchy than open diff, in my experience.
One disadvantage to an open diff is if you actually *want* to get sideways, it can be very hard. The Elise gets sideways enough for my taste without LSD, so it doesn't bother me.
The other disadvantage is while racing, but unless you put a lot more power in the car, it's not going to terribly improve times, even at an autocross. Because we already have a lot of weight in the rear, the tires aren't as prone to breaking loose as an FF or FR setup, so it's pretty easy to modulate the power on the stock setup, and I didn't have any problems getting the car to power-on oversteer when I autocrossed it last month--nor did I have problems with major inside-wheelspin*.
Also, I've heard that OEM LSD units aren't as good as aftermarket units, and don't really help much with high-powered applications. However, I think this may only apply to the older, viscous units, such as in my Mk2 MR2s, so the better, helical units Toyota uses now may be perfectly fine. Just make sure you don't spend the money on an OEM LSD if you're just going to replace it 6 months down the road.
* Umm, other than the "I suck at life" factor of having never raced a Lotus before.
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