Rear wheel drive - how big a difference?

[FRiSson]

I bought my FR-S after having two front wheel drive cars. Both cars were compact and similar in dimension and weight to the FR-S. Both were excellent, but I had fond memories of the special feel of RWD. FWD fans will always repeat the mantra that FWD is essential for snowy climates, but I never found much more than a small advantage in the snow for FWD.

In terms of regular street driving, the thing that I like about RWD is the separation of steering from power delivery. RWD seems to give me a much better sense of what is going on in the front end. I can concentrate purely on handling instead of handling + traction + dealing with torque effects. In addition, I think this gives me a better sense of exactly what kind of traction I am getting from the rear wheels. And this translates into better control and the ability to subtly adjust direction through the throttle. After driving RWD, the rear end on a FWD car feels almost like a trailer for me - dumb weight.

So overall, I have to say that RWD is a total win for me - but not in all the obvious ways. I like the elimination of torque steer, but what I really like is the ability to better separate and process what is going on at the two ends of the car. As a result it just feels like I am driving more car.

[NWFRS]

The only FWD car I ever owned was a '92 Saturn SC2. (It was given to me) It was like a little mountain goat in the snow. When cornering, that car was totally neutral until it reached its limit, then it would under steer and slide off the road. Fantastic little car for practicality but I HATED it. My soul shriveled up and died every time I got in it. My personal opinion is that if you're going to have fun pushing a car it's safer to have it oversteer at its limit rather than under steer.

[lickitysplit]

RWD = correct.

[Takuro]

My first rwd car was a 240sx which was the first car I purchased (by myself). It was funnn to drive. Just felt more naturally like a sports car and RWD also feels "right" with pushing the weight of the car rather than pulling it like fwd. After that, I never looked into fwd cars again regardless of the type- sedan, suv, etc.

[batmobilefrs]

This is the first RWD car I have ever owned, I have had purely FWD/4WD up to this point. So the first time that I turned off the TCS and put the throttle down and the rear end slid from under me it was one of the most thrilling moments I've had in a car. I just cant wait til I can get this beast on some twisty roads and really have some fun

[fatoni]

not a huge deal at this power level but im sure many people are going to blow it out of proportion. the most fun car i ever owned was probably a crx followed closely by a miata, brz, ms protege, ae86 etc. i dont see much correlation to drive train type but rather an execution of sportiness as a whole.

[Whitigir]

RWD has oversteer, FWD have understeer problem.

RWD = pretty much bad in the snow, where you loose traction and got stuck.

RWD = Fun Factors

FWD = Safe and Easy

[FRyeS]

I've driven both for perhaps an equal number of years and I will always enjoy driving a RWD more. Like mentioned above, it just seems like a good idea to seperate steering and power delivery. That said - I have always lived in a warm climate until the last few years. I am in snowy weather now and this will be my first RWD winter.

So we'll have to see how this winter goes before I can speak to that. My thought is this though, my FRS with proper snow tires > my old TC or Sentra with summer tires/all season tires which effectively became slicks driving through any significant snow.

[DarkSunrise]

Daily driving - not much difference.

Spirited driving (track/autocross) - very different.

[Suberman]

Understeer is always safer. Understeer is always quicker.

ALL modern road cars understeer at the limit. Only excess engine torque can induce oversteer in a road car. There are those who claim some cars, particularly fwd hot hatches, will oversteer but this is technically inaccurate. Drop throttle induced oversteer is not a result of chassis behaviour or characteristics but of deliberate driver induced instability and is of very little use for quick road driving. Ditto inducing oversteer in our gloved BRZ. That's just poor driving to be honest.

Unless there's too much power for the drive wheels to put down onto the road fwd will always be quicker.

Only when the engine torque significantly overwhelms the drive wheel traction will rwd be quicker.

There is a myth that rwd is "better" but it just isn't.

The only real advantage rwd has in a low powered car is driving feel.

The oversteer you get in the BRZ actually slows the car down significantly. Better tires are the answer to get what little power there is down onto the road and driving the car forwards. Sideways may be exciting but it is very slow.

[TylerLieberman]

RWD is extremely dangerous and should not be considered by a novice driver. Too much aggressive driving will cause you to go into over-drift and drift into another dimension.


FILLED WITH DINOSAURS!!!!

[WolfpackS2k]

^^I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with a fair amount of your post. If a vehicle is FWD that means it's weight distribution is grossly imbalanced and it's polar moment of inertia is far from idea. Both anathema to a naturally good handling car. You can't beat the laws of physics.

And lift throttle oversteer, mainly for FWD sporty cars, is most certainly helpful in getting that vehicle to rotate in turns. A little bit of oversteer in a turn is always faster than a little bit of understeer.

Sure, almost all cars these days are tuned to understeer at the limit. But that's because mandatory driver training is practically non-existent and because (at least in the US) someone is always looking to sue automakers for things that aren't their fault (see: Toyota's runaway acceleration).

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

^^I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with a fair amount of your post. If a vehicle is FWD that means it's weight distribution is grossly imbalanced and it's polar moment of inertia is far from idea. Both anathema to a naturally good handling car. You can't beat the laws of physics.

And lift throttle oversteer, mainly for FWD sporty cars, is most certainly helpful in getting that vehicle to rotate in turns. A little bit of oversteer in a turn is always faster than a little bit of understeer.

Sure, almost all cars these days are tuned to understeer at the limit. But that's because mandatory driver training is practically non-existent and because (at least in the US) someone is always looking to sue automakers for things that aren't their fault (see: Toyota's runaway acceleration).

100% of my post was sarcasm

[Evil Jesus]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

100% of my post was sarcasm

I believe he was replying to Suberman and you just snuck in there before he hit the "post" button.