I see a lot of people talking about this, i seriously dont get it. I personally think Front wheel drive is better. Why is Rear wheel drive considered better than front wheel drive?
traction...
when you hit the gas the weight of the car trasnfers back puting wieght on the rear wheels and taking weight off the front wheels... the traction a RWD car is capable of having is physically impossible for a FWD car to match...
another reason is the whole overstear / understeer thing... another reason most actuall all out race cars go RWD.
and last but not least... big engines... it shard to fit a big engine and a FWD transaxle all inside the engine bay unless the car is enormous (like cadaliac) you can easily fit a big engine when a majority of the trans is in/underneithe the firewall and next to the engine itself. Plus you will find alot of the ftont whell drive cars have engine horizontally mounted, liek fender to fender and RWD will have it longitudinal like front bumper to firewall, alot of poeple prefer the longitutinal mounting because theres not a whoile lot of parts on the back of engine so most things are accesable plus you don't have exhaust pipes going down the block wrapping around underneith the oil pan (GM doesn't do that anymore but alot of imports do)
Another reason is torque-steer. Front wheel drive cars suffer from this (increasingly so at high HP levels) because the diff is trying to spin the front wheels at different speeds which causes the car to steer by itself.
Highly undesireable.
^^^ and with RWD the entire body torques sideways
Quote:
^^^ and with RWD the entire body torques sideways
The diff on rear wheel drive car is not in conflict with the steering. It simply allows the wheels to spin at different rates (which they must do to allow cornering).
Any detrimental effect this might have (which might be solved by an LSD) is far less than that which occurs in an FWD car.
Ta, Paul.
ok how bout this, how about an AWD car, i am thinking in terms of drag racing and street driving. would there be preference to this if it was affordable?
well AWD puts the power to ground and it does help the car stick to the turns. But there is a down side. Im not going to mention the Mitsu and wrx because then im going to have a million post as to why i am stupid. SO i will use the GMC typhoon 4.3 turbo charged Gmc jimmy with awd. these trucks hook but the drive line stress is alot to put up with these trucks can go to like 10s before they ditch the AWD by removing the front drive shaft. these trucks when modified can break transfer cases axel shafts and transmissions take alot of the abuse too . know you might say well maybe the design is weak but keep in mind the transfer case is truck style transfer cases
durability issues can always be rectified, i am referring to the concept and whether it would be something that would be preferred, i am thinking of making a modification to do so.
i see advantages and disadvantages posted above for RWD vs FWD and i honestly believe that it is not impossible to eliminate an advantage given to RWD cars, perhaps even use FWD as an advantage.
well in terms of street driving AWD has the advantage....
but under track conditions (depending on the type of racing) RWD still has the advantage over everything... every single top fuel car is RWD, not a single one is FWD or AWD, theres a reason for that
Well you explained the advantage of a RWD over a FWD, how about explaining an advantage of RWD over AWD, and please try to keep in mind that i was looking to have a discussion on the matter and would appreciate you backing up your comments
A RWD car has an advantage when accelerating out of bends over the FWD. The AWD will be better when the surface is not perfect, as on a rally car. On a race track the disadvantage with the AWD may be the extra weight, the power consumed by the transmission. It is not worth it.
An AWD with the same power at the wheels and the same weight as the RWD will be slightly faster.
If you take an AWD hemi Ram 1500 and race a RWD hemi ram 1500, the RWD wins. I witnessed it repeatedly. The AWD takes off quicker because it doesnt spin tires, but the power distribution loss is greater than that of the RWD. Im not talking down to AWD, because they usually have better handling while traveling at higher speeds, and almost always have better acceleration.
True, in a quarter-mile event.
In the states you tend discuss quarter mile acceleration, and in Europe we are talking track performance, track acceleration. LOL
