Thread: FWD vs. RWD
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Old 05-05-2002, 08:45 AM
SaabJohan SaabJohan is offline
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The problem with FWD is basicly two things, traction for the tires and understeering.

During acceleration the cars center of gravity is moved back in the car, this means less weight on the frontwheels and vice versa for the rear wheels. This makes it more difficult to get traction for the front wheels.

When a front wheel driven car is accelerating it generally understeer, but if the throttle is released the car can have tendences to oversteer, or at least it will oversteer more than it did when the car was accelerating. A rear wheel driven car is just the opposite, and that can make the car easier in turns but more difficult to handle on straight parts of the road, but there the FWD will have more problem with traction for the driving wheels when it accelerate. But in higher speeds the aerodynamics can affect the traction, which can give it good traction.
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