[Gearhead23]

Originally Posted by aspera

I've read some strange posts on this forum about AWD and RWD. It seems that quite a few of you have never looked under the hood of a Subaru. The engine overhangs the front axle by quite a lot. That's why it has to be short and lightweight. More still have never driven a Subaru. AWD really does work great in certain situations. Corner exit is one of them. Slalom is the other. There is no way my MR2 could turn a corner and accelerate up a wet on-ramp like my WRX.

My WRX can never corner as hard as my MR2 in perfectly dry, smooth conditions, though.

My first suggestion is to overlay pictures of the FT-86 with pictures of other cars and see if there is room in the nose for Subaru's AWD. While your at it; overlay a Celica, Scion, MR2, AE86, 370Z, all sorts of Imprezas, and the beastly heavy American ponycars.

Next, realize that many of you have made a false choice. If given a choice between RWD and AWD...choose BOTH! If we're lucky Subaru has taken the next evolutionary step with their AWD system. That would be a system somewhat like the R34 Skyline's GT-S/GT-R, where the GT-S is RWD and the GT-R is AWD but can bias almost all of the torque to the rear if need be.

The big difference between Subaru's AWD and the GT-R's AWD is a front driveshaft going to a front diff ahead of the engine. If Subaru did this, the engine could move back about a FOOT! All they need to do is run a front driveshaft through a special oilpan to a centered front diff that's ahead of the engine. (Subaru oil pans are deeeep).

My final thought is about the front frame rails on Subarus. They aren't parallel. So if Subaru was going to offer conventional AWD and RWD (with the engine set back to the firewall) they'd have to make two kinds of subframes or they'd have to make the frame rails parallel all they way back to the new RWD mounting points. I just don't think they're offering AWD in any way at this time. My gut feeling is that the car is RWD only.

WRX's Slalom well???