Why the bias against front wheel drive cars?

[Dr. Love]

Why do people always say things like "a fwd car is not a true sports car" and "I would never want a fwd car"?

I think we can all agree that there are countless fwd cars which can accelerate very well and handle very well. So then why do some people dislike fwd cars? I guess you do have to adopt sort of a different style of driving when taking corners real fast, but so what. I would like to hear arguments for this.

[kfoote]

The biggest problems are that when accelerating, the weight transfers to the rear tires, giving less traction to the drive wheels and the front tires are being overworked when cornering by being required to both apply power and steer the vehicle. the net result is significant inherent understeer. Basically, the front tires end up doing everything, and the rear tires keep the trunk from dragging on the road (exaggeration, but it shows the point). With equal power, handling, tires, weight distribution, etc, a RWD will handle better and be faster than a RWD car.

[evil6remlin]

Another problem is torque steer. Since the front wheels are putting down the power as well as turning the car, when you shift and then mash the gas the steering wheel wants to rip out of your hands if your making any decent power. A limited slip differential can help with this but it is still an issue when making big power on a fwd car.

[Gohan Ryu]

1/4 mile purists are against anything that could reduce traction. When accelerating, the laws of physics dictate that FWD cars lose traction on the drive wheels because of the weight shift. Purists hate that kinda shit - they don't care about better handling, they just want acceleration.

Also, there are people who have no idea what they are talking about and they say "I'd never drive a FWD" only because they heard someone else say it.

[Dr. Love]

Do fwd cars have any advantages in racing? When going through a sharp curve, couldn't a fwd car start accelerating hard as soon as he hits the apex of the curve, while a rwd car would have to wait until he is almost entirely out of the curve before he can accelerate hard or he'll spin out. Is this true?

[drdisque]

nope, a properly set up RWD will be able to accelerate at apex as long as you apply the power smoothly. On a FWD car if you apply power too abruptly on exit you can easily power-on understeer off the corner too.

[kfoote]

All else being equal, a properly set up FWD car will be easier to drive in very slick conditions or rain than a RWD car will, which will usually result in quicker lap times.

In the Miata, I am genarally on the power sooner than FWD cars. In many cases, the inherent understeer of FWD cars means that if the car starts to understeer, you have to lift completely out of the gas a lot to get the car to stop understeering, where there are other options in a RWD car. Also in a RWD car, once the car starts to rotate, it's usually easier to maintain the desired arc through the corner. In the Miata, I'm usually full power well before the apex of most corners.

[psychorallyfreak]

Originally Posted by kfoote

In many cases, the inherent understeer of FWD cars means that if the car starts to understeer, you have to lift completely out of the gas a lot to get the car to stop understeering...

Hmm. When I was racing my dad's 924 Turbo, I actually had to lift COMPLETELY off the gas to get the car to rotate...

[kfoote]

The 924 does have some understeer in it, but it can usually be dialed out of the car with an alignment change. Also, a light tap of the brakes with your left foot mid-corner will get the back of the car to rotate without lifting out of the gas. This technique works to an extent in FWD/AWD cars, but not nearly as well as in a RWD car, and the advantages of doing this are bigger with a turbo car.

[TheStang00]

powerful rwd cars can actually get out of corners faster than fwd, they get better grip and they dont understeer as much. if you step on it out of a corner with fwd u have a tendency to push, rwd u will not get this nearly as much if at all.you can steer into a corner harder with rwd and exit the corner at a higher speed. and like stated earlier they are better off the line. also they will usually have better wieght distribution. but rwd is not always better... thats for road racing conditions, a fwd will whip a rwd's butt in snow or off road.

[SabreKhan]

You'll also notice that the only FWD racecars out there are based strictly on street models. There is no such thing as a purpose-built FWD racer because FWD is less than optimal for race conditions (see reasons above, plus your local physics textbook).

FWD cars were created because they're easier and cheaper to build. Not only that, but in normal (street) driving conditions the average driver will be better able to control a FWD car. A RWD car is more likely to spin out in low-traction conditions (rain, snow, dirt, etc.). I spun my 88hp Mustang LX lots of times, and it had no power whatsoever (most of those times were on purpose, though). I have *never* gotten my 100hp Saturn backwards, even on dirt, including the one or two times I was attempting to powerslide in it. The Mustang would still be faster on a track, though. (Though I have gotten the WRX around backwards a few times... most of them in the mud, though)

[uranium235powered]

The new era is AWD....

[TheStang00]

AWD is not the new era... those cars run into the same problem as FWD just not as bad, for dry road racing, RWD is the best.

[kfoote]

AWD is not the new era, it's been around for almost 20 years. The Audi 90 Quattros won IMSA GTO and Trans-Am champoinships in the late 80's. There are several racing series that banned AWD, but still allowed both FWD and RWD because teh AWD cars were too fast (Australian and British Touring cars from the mid-late 90's come to mind).

All else being equal, I'll take the AWD car over the RWD car for racing on dry pavemant. Properly set up, the AWD car will be able to get the power down better coming out of slow and medium speed corners. Yes, it will understeer, though not as bad as a FWD car, and with proper differential setups the understeer can be reduced to a point where it's manageable. It requires a different driving technique, and is harder to really drive fast, but it is a bit faster overall.

[stephenp]

although i have never even driven an all wheele drive sports car i would believe them to be the best of both worlds(yes ive drivenm them both and see a point for boooth to be favored ) from what i have heard and common physics laws although if all 3 cars have same flywheele horse weight and all else i bet the front wheel to win in most draging events ( until the power begins to exceed that of the traction circle once in 2 but if the power does exceed that of 2nd then it would be the rear wheel and the awd would have too much power chewed up through the drive to win in either case and obvioslly there are exceptions ie little too rev happy on the shift ect but equal driving gears and fly horse theses statements are thought to be true doesnt mean i like fwd more for that reason i prefer rwd for performance but fwd works as a daily driver