FR Rally Racing

Does anyone here like FR over 4WD. Personnaly I think it is the best drivetrain even over 4WD.

Can't agree, sorry. I've been to an ice track recently (was driving a FWD Passat), and an older, but modified, Subaru Legacy was totally incomparable in speed to me. His acceleration out of the corners was just ... in another league, and no understeer either. I'm afraid on loose surfaces AWD always takes it.

That guy even towed out the car I had beached after I understeered and slid into a snowbank. A Civic that was there didn't manage to tow it out, but no problem for the Subaru.

You probably still wont agree but I am talking about FR, Front engine rear wheel drive. I know that it gets stuck easier, but with physics it seems that it would work better. If you were like a god liek driver. heheheh.

Oops, sorry, misrear what you said.

And you're right, i still won't agree. :) With FWD you have the force pulling the car, with RWD - pushing. With AWD - both, with the advantages of both.

But then wont you spin your front wheels (steering wheels) and then with 4 wheel steering wont you spin all of your steering wheels?

And dont worry about that miss hear.

on a nice dry tarmac track its my opinion that RWD is better suited....of course arguments can be brought for both cases....


however on lose surfaces...like rally trails...there is no doubt the AWD platform is far superior

Here are Hannu Mikkola's comments on the quattro Audi and AWD (comments made back in the early days of AWD development i think)

click me! (http://www.euro-part.com/html/mikkola.html)

Thing about AWD is it has the ability to pull out of a spin or drift very quickly. I don't know about other companies, but Subaru automatically shifts 100% power to the front wheels while using the e-brake, allowing the use of FWD techniques with it. For dry racing, I'd agree that the RWD has a certian advantage, but a 4/AWD can also be very successful, it just requires more advanced, precise driving. Different styles, really.

Thing about AWD is it has the ability to pull out of a spin or drift very quickly. I don't know about other companies, but Subaru automatically shifts 100% power to the front wheels while using the e-brake, allowing the use of FWD techniques with it. For dry racing, I'd agree that the RWD has a certian advantage, but a 4/AWD can also be very successful, it just requires more advanced, precise driving. Different styles, really.

I wouldn't quite say they automatically engage FWD when the E-brake is engaged, the mechanism disengages the centre differential when the E-brake is engaged which results in all the power being distributed to the front wheels. It's more a resultant action then anything else.

Most of the rally teams use this same setup for the E-brake since it obviously avoids damage to the rear differential amongst other things when the rear wheels are suddenly locked through the application of the E-brake.

Back to the original topic, though, AWD and FRD are like apples and oranges on dry track, so there is little to compare beyond personal styles. On unstable surfaces, though, the RWD can only help you to change your angle, whereas 4/AWD can and will pull you out of it. Sorry, but there's way, WAY to much risk in using RWD offroad, one slight miscalculation and it's impossible to recover..