Rear wheel drive - how big a difference?

[Diode Dynamics]

You drifted a 93 Suburban?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3_2_ghFx6w"]SUV Rollovers - The Hidden Secrets of the SUV Safety Documentary - YouTube[/ame]

Nick C.

[TeamZleep]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151743470387972

[thill]

Originally Posted by MightyMeeple

What he posted. I absolutely agree that the steering feel, but probably as important is the better weight distribution is better with RWD. FWD, in general, is going to be porky up front and lighter over the rear tires...and that isn't good for cornering.

I've owned 2 RWDs, 2 FWDs and a quattro...the RWDs handling and driver feel are tons better hands down.

I have to agree. I have owned lots of cars, and all of my RWD cars have been more enjoyable to drive with better driver feedback. You also don't get torque steer which usually plagues high horsepower, high torque, FWD cars. Anyone who has ever driven a Mazda Speed3 knows what I am talking about

[NyC Zn6]

My first car was a 91 deuce which was a blast to drive. Second car was a 97 maxima and frs is my third car. I learned a lot from my deuce when it came to rwd. I dont ever want to get an awd car because I dislike 4 wheel drive. I would never go back to fwd so rwd it is.

[Bristecom]

Originally Posted by NyC Zn6

My first car was a 91 deuce which was a blast to drive. Second car was a 97 maxima and frs is my third car. I learned a lot from my deuce when it came to rwd. I dont ever want to get an awd car because I dislike 4 wheel drive. I would never go back to fwd so rwd it is.

You don't want an AWD because you dislike 4WD? Could you explain that a little better?

[Braces]

Manufacturers build in understeer to be safer because when the average driver encounters understeer ... they usually get off the gas. Better drivers like oversteer because they can apply opposite lock steering to make the turn rather than hit the brakes. RWD and AWD better than FWD in most driving situations.

[roddy]

Originally Posted by BRZ21

same.
93 suburban
97 mustang
13 brz

and I drifted all of them

LOL at drifting a 'burban...that must have been a riot! I'll take a seat in the 3rd row.

[jblmr2]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

That whole understeer/oversteer thing applies to winter conditions, too.
When a FWD loses traction on ice it basically goes straight into the surrounding geography.
When a RWD loses traction on ice you still have a chance to steer, using the gas pedal.
It is of course highly recommended to practice this before getting into that kind of pickle on public icy roads.
Personally I take every opportunity I get to practice RWD ice skating skills, and try hard to avoid having to use them when there's oncoming traffic.
Saved my life, or at least my car, several times in the past though.

Being from Norway, the home of the best rally drivers in the world, I'm not surprised that you would find slippery conditions less than a challenge for RWD cars.

[bkblitzed]

Originally Posted by fatoni

being experienced has nothing to do with a car being fast. also, that makes no sense at all. why are you losing control if you are understeering but maintain control when you are oversteering?

have you ever understeered?

[FReSh]

It all comes down to the available traction at the tires. A tire can only provide so much grip.

In a cornering situation, a FWD car splits the available traction of the front wheels between turning the car and accelerating. The rear tires only focus on keeping the back of the car from sliding out.

In a RWD car in the same turning situation, the front wheels can focus completely on turning to prevent understeer. Meanwhile, the rear tires split the available traction between turning (holding the back end in) and accelerating.

The question is 'Which is better?'

The answer lies in the weight transfer when power is applied. When a car applies power, it partially unloads the front wheels and transfers that load to the rear wheels. This lowers the peak amount of traction available to the front tires, and raises the peak traction of the rear tires.

In many FWD cars, this causes the front tires to expend all of their traction much earlier than the rears, causing understeer. As a result of this, the rear tires may be "underchallenged" (they have more grip available than what is being used). In this scenario, not all of the available grip is being used.

In a RWD car, the weight transfer under acceleration gives more peak traction to the rear wheels which have to split their traction between turning and accelerating. This allows them to hold the road better than the front tires of a FWD car. This allows for a higher corner speed before traction is broken. The front tires' grip is also used completely for turning (due to increased corner speed and the partial unloading). This allows all 4 of the tires to contribute all of their available traction.

These things give the advantage to a RWD car. It's better to have the turning/acceleration split occur at the tire with the higher total amount of available traction.

The imbalance of traction in a FWD car can be tuned out through suspension adjustments. However, in the best case scenario, no weight is transferred to the rear tires and the front tires maintain their original amount of grip to split between turning and accelerating. This is better than unloading the front tires, but still doesn't perform quite as well as a RWD car using weight transfer to load the rear tires.

Then of course you could add in the torque steer issues and the fact that RWD is more controllable at the limit since you can adjust the car's angle with both the steering and the throttle, rather than just the steering.

RWD wins.

[BRZ21]

Originally Posted by roddy

LOL at drifting a 'burban...that must have been a riot! I'll take a seat in the 3rd row.

yep

its great cause you can show off to 8 people at the same time and all of them could be buckled up. haha and still fit my puppy in the back with room to spare

[regal]

The difference is when you push a FWD car too far you end up in a wreck, while RWD gives you a heads up.

[muffinz]

Originally Posted by roddy

LOL at drifting a 'burban...that must have been a riot! I'll take a seat in the 3rd row.

Haha it's quite fun - I've done it in my dad's '96 burban around a traffic circle in the snow...soooooo much fun hittin oppo lock in a 21 foot long truck

[PR FR-S]

Originally Posted by BRZ21

yep

its great cause you can show off to 8 people at the same time and all of them could be buckled up. haha and still fit my puppy in the back with room to spare

That should be a great High School Senior type of car...