This may sound stupid...but why are some cars made with fwd while others have rwd. It seems to me that most people prefer rwd so why dont car manufacturers make more rwd cars? Its it economically beneficial to produce fwd cars? TIA

 

lol.

you should search up the comparison online.
But basically, fwd provides more traction and consumers like that. While, RWD provides better power (accel) and give you understeer so you can do cool tricks like drifting and donuts without an E-brake.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kal &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol.

you should search up the comparison online.
But basically, fwd provides more traction and consumers like that. While, RWD provides better power (accel) and give you understeer so you can do cool tricks like drifting and donuts without an E-brake.</TD></TR></TABLE>
wrong, wrong wrong.
jesus.
wrong
stan

 

"This new system increased the grip of the driven wheels to improve roadholding. This is important for safety."
from: http://www.citroen.com/site/ht...drive

FWD is also more economical since everything's packed nicely in the front.

and i meant oversteer for rwd, whilst fwd gives understeer.

how about you add something useful to the thread rather than useless ****?

edit: but I won't flame with you since it's pointless.

 

in a nut shell, a FWD is a "point and go"

also the average driver has no clue about car dynamics, they will tend to apply the breaks, and rather heavily, DURING turns, most of all during the winter season.

a FWD is more forgiving in those situations... while a RWD will make you look into the face of the guy behind you.

Also when a FWD loses conrol all you really need to do is jam on the gas and hope to god you get traction, and the car "pulls itself out", a rwd needs a combination of steering imput, moderate throttle imput and what not.

A rwd requires skill and vehicle awareness to operate properlly
the average consumer doesnt know how change a spare tire

therefore a car is made that reacts as best as it could to the WRONG imput of the average consumer who in his head, thinks that hes doing the RIGHT thing...

nuff said.

 

For drag racing, RWD or AWD is the best way to go, espically when you're dealing with a lot of power. With FWD, Traction is a huge problem. When you accelerate it causes weight to shift to the rear wheels, which then causes the front wheels to pull up and spin = No traction.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kal &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">"This new system increased the grip of the driven wheels to improve roadholding. This is important for safety."
from: http://www.citroen.com/site/ht...drive
</TD></TR></TABLE>

don't believe all the marketing you see on the internet.

Really though, FWD is just more user friendly for the average driver. That, and it's cheaper to produce, for the average driver, who just wants to pay less, and doesn't even give a **** about the drivetrain configuration.

RWD is, without a doubt, the best performing drivetrain configuration.

 

In a handling perspective, its the Yaw moment, mass times the distance from center of rotation (m x dl)...RWD offers the ability "push" the chassis through a turn thus creating a higher ranger of motion, or smaller yaw moment, which allows the ability to take a turn at a faster, tighter path than a FWD car can.

In an acceleration perspective, when a car accelerates, it tends to squat in the rear, thats just how the suspension and chassis dynamics gods make it. In a RWD this plants more traction on the power wheels. In a FWD car this takes away traction.

There are plenty of other reasons why one may be better than the other, but in my mind those are the two prodominant forces...acceleration and handling.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LSVTEC 91 Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">For drag racing, RWD or AWD is the best way to go, espically when you're dealing with a lot of power. </TD></TR></TABLE>

As far as AWD goes, yes and no. Or maybe just no. You have to keep an eye to the real world situation... most of the AWD selections available are gutless NA cars where the 25% AWD drivetrain loss makes them slow (2.5 RS), or are small displacement turbo engines stuck into heavy 3300-3500 bodies with fragile drivetrains (DSM, WRX). I'm not up on the EVO or the STi (which I understand has a much stouter transmission), and I would love clarification if I'm wrong.

In a power situation on the street, like turbo cars, you may find that if you can gimp your FWD Honda out of the hole credibly, you can come flying past an AWD car that pulled you five cars from a dig at around 45-50 mph. Given the DSM and WRX engines are knock limited due to engine design on pump gas to around 350 whp, whereas B-series can hit 450 whp on pump, and more to the point a CRX (my CRX?) weighs almost half what one of those AWDs do... even at 200 whp it's not hard for a Honda with decent suspension and a decent driver to shame a 300-350 whp AWD car.

You need to look at the total package. In the 1/8th, AWD has you totally outclassed, you REALLY have to have some mojo to win one of those races. On the street or at the 1/4 things are going to be a little different than you might think. Although AWD is theoretically superior, due to the packaging and presentation of the ones I'm aware of, they are realistically inferior. If you want outclassed... I dunno, stock LS1 on a 150 shot should outclass most built FWDs.

 

For drag racing, RWD will be the superior choice...power and weight shift and chassis dynamics limit traction on FWD cars. AWD cars are probably the best "street" drag car, mainly because you can run street tires on DSM's and break into the 8's. But look at any funny car / top fuel dragster...all RWD, because the added drivetrain and weight for making them AWD would be rediculous when you can extract just as much traction out of their 65" slicks. I believe most funny cars run a 60' of close to 1 second...either just under, or just over.

FWD is the bottom of the boat when it comes to traction off the line, you loose all the weight ontop of the wheels, and only with a VERY well tuned chassis and suspension can you effectively build a good FWD dragger. But again, this is why it is always so fun to do it...be the underdog and hopefully win.