What drivetrain configuration do you prefer?

What drivetrain configuration do you prefer?

  • FWD

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • AWD

    Votes: 34 24.5%
  • RWD

    Votes: 99 71.2%

  • Total voters
    139
FWD's oversteer just as much as RWD's, just in a different part of the corner.

FWD is sideways on entry, RWD sideways on exit (generally speaking of course). RWD you are accelerating out=fun......FWD you are trying to slow down fun...but also frightening.
 
You can get a RWD car sideways on entry. Drifters do it all the time, since they consider power oversteer to be a novice's way of initiating a drift.

Actually, drifters are usually sideways before corner entry.


The same methods you'd use to non-handbrake slide a FWD car (rear wheel lockup under brakes, weight shifting) can be applied to a RWD car. However, FWD cars don't have the extra options that RWD cars do, with compression locking or getting on the power generating understeer instead.
 
Yes of course, thats why I said "generally". Just like a FWD can oversteer on the exit of a corner.
 
True.

I was quite surprised when my mate demonstrated power oversteer in his Integra Type-R. Not as impressive as riding with drifters in their RWD machines, but the unexpectedness more than made up for it.
 
LOLZ.

Nobody dares choose the "FWD" option. I didn't either because I'm scared of peer pressure and all.
 
RWD. Because I prefer to be in control.
 
I think that all of the configuartions have their place in a given car, fwd (compact, effiecient, small, city car or hot hatch), 4wd (off road vehicles or rally cars) and rwd (sports cars, coupes, sports saloons, muscle cars, roadsters, supercars) But I have to admit that rwd is the one closest to mye heart.

When it comes to a car that I have to enjoy, it would have to be a rwd car. I don't care much about split seconds here and there, the most important thing in a car bought for enjoyment is the driving experience, not having a bounch of computers and a 4wd-system doing the drivng for me. The last part of the 2007 EVO Car Of The Year elaborates this very well.
 
^ That sums up my feelings as well. I chose RWD, but I own one of each and enjoy all of them, just in different ways.
 
FWD can reduce weight and increase cabin space due to a lack of propshaft and its required support systems. The lack of materials and complexity also reduces costs.

It also has less parasitic loss so it makes better use of the power coming from the engine, which brings further benefits to performance and economy....within the limits of what a FWD chassis can handle.

AWD can't manage these things.
I meant more along the lines of performance driving rather than packaging/efficiency. For going to work in traffic RWD is the absolute best option. RWD motorcylce that is :D FWD is good on econoboxes, not so much on performance cars mostly because above about 200HP you start getting serious torque steer.

You can make a 50:50 torque split car slide. You just need to be a bit more committed on entry, and initiate it with a more severe weight shift.

The current record holder for the longest powerslide is an Impreza WRX. The driver initiated a slide (on a wet skidpan, I believe) and kept going round and round in circles until the fuel tank was empty.

50:50 AWD is really hard to slide in normal grip conditions. Especially one with a torsen in the middle. I did get my car to slide in the rain but that was using the e-brake. In the snow I can do it with a feint :)
 
AWD for my road car (never know when the extra traction will come in handy). RWD for the track toys.
 
Because with other set ups they don't come with steering wheels? come on

Nope no steering wheel is fitted to any other drivetrain, they are an optional extra and are usually not connected to the wheels to keep the costs down :)
 
From that How Stuff Works page:

"Usually, when carmakers say that a car has four-wheel drive, they are referring to a part-time system."

i.e. marketing term. "Usually" and "referring to" means common usage, not definition.

The article is also written in an offroader-centric view, which means its not entirely suited to this thread where people are talking about sports cars.

I'm not convinced that the Hummer's system is the "ultimate", since it has to use electronic brakes to limit slip and shift drive to the other half-shaft when the torsen diffs reach their differential limits. A clutch-pack type LSD would not require you to waste brake pads doing the same thing, and it would be a purely mechanical solution.

When an Australian offroad magazine took 3 cars (two using an ABS-based limited slip setup and one using LSDs) the two electronically LSD'ed cars failed while offroad due to electronics failure in the sand and needed to be towed out.

Also, from a sports car perspective, the Evo Lancer's entirely active differential system is far superior to the semi-mechanical Hummer's.


From a purely semantic point of view, if your car has four wheels and all of them get power at some point is there any technical inaccuracy between calling them 4WD or AWD? All wheels = 4 wheels on practically every car on the market.


"4WD" and "4x4" have the connotation of a high ride height offroader, given that this is traditionally the type of vehicle that supplied engine torque to all four of its wheels. When companies started putting similar drivetrain layouts into regular cars, they needed something the customer could immediately differentiate it.

I see what you are saying, but AWD and 4x4 (in the traditional scense unwarped by marketing) are different. And of coarse a sports car will never have a true 4x4 system. So in this thread it's a bit off topic, but I was mostly joking in my origonal post.

And BTW, the hummer 4x4 system is not even near the "ultimate" as the article puts it. But that is for another day. :) We all good. :D
 
I meant more along the lines of performance driving rather than packaging/efficiency. For going to work in traffic RWD is the absolute best option. RWD motorcylce that is :D

Only if everyone else is riding motorcycles. Otherwise, you're what doctors call a "soon-to-be organ donor". Unfortunately most cagers drive with their heads jammed so far up their asses they barely see other cars, let alone bikes.

And, when it rains, having a roof and the extra grip / stability of four wheels is preferred.

If I were to buy a bike, and I've been thinking about it, it would be a pure toy rather than something I'd commute on.
 
I voted for RWD. For a car to drive every day I prefer AWD, but for a back roads blast on a perfect day, RWD would be preferable.

I've just noticed that somebody voted for FWD. :blink:
 
Only if everyone else is riding motorcycles. Otherwise, you're what doctors call a "soon-to-be organ donor". Unfortunately most cagers drive with their heads jammed so far up their asses they barely see other cars, let alone bikes.

And, when it rains, having a roof and the extra grip / stability of four wheels is preferred.

If I were to buy a bike, and I've been thinking about it, it would be a pure toy rather than something I'd commute on.

It was more of a joke than anything else. Bikes are good to commute in bumper to bumper traffic since you can go between cars.
 
I've just noticed that somebody voted for FWD. :blink:

me too! and it wasn't me either!
Either someone's doing it for a laugh or they're strange

whichever it is, I wanna know who it was :p
 
FWD: Economy and better acceleration for low BHP cars.
RWD: More fun and better for high BHP
AWD: For traction. Not any other reason. AWD is good for cars which needs it.

I prefer RWD because it's so much fun driving looking out through the side window to see where I'm going.
 
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