FWD vs. RWD

[Bryan330i]

I see a lot of people commenting on FWD and RWD, things like “but it’s FWD.” So I have been thinking about this and my weak official “unofficial” opinion is that there are some advantages to both.

For those that favor RWD, is this more of a driving “feel” that you like or do you believe this setup handles better?

I was thinking about it and I know control in an aggressive turn depends a lot on rear-wheel power control. At least I think. So I was wondering in the case of FWD, the control factor would be a pulling of the car straight?

Someone just told me that FWD is much better in very tight high-speed turns and RWD in wide turns. I did find the comment interesting but I don’t really see the logic behind the comment. Aren’t you more prone to go wider in a FWD?

 

[codex57]

Well, this a scenario like that just happened as I described in that A4 vs. 3 series thread. There's a freeway interchange that's one of those really tight 25 mph curves. I have a lot of fun testing out the handling characteristics of my family's cars there. The difference btw FWD and RWD REALLY shows up there. I can feel the front wheels slip on the Hondas and I can feel the rear wheels slip on the BMW (Mercedes and the van have no feel at all).

RWD is more fun. Dunno if it actually makes the car turn better (as opposed to BMW's suspension tuning), but the "feel" is better. FWD feels more controllable. It definitely swings wider, but it's got more margin for error. Prolly cuz the slipping wheels directly affect the half that also is in charge of steering. Less for my brain to calculate and interpret. I'm not a race car driver by any stretch of the imagination so the less variables for me to compute, the easier it is.

 

[MrElussive]

A lot of people say that FWD is terrible and that RWD is superior to FWD and AWD. Basically, it really comes down to what each person prefers. I remember when I had my Jetta, I used to take turns pretty fast and I never really felt any obtrusive FWD "pull" when powering through turns, sharp or wide. I basically never felt "held back" because the car was FWD when it came to handling the twisties. VW/Audi does a really nice job with their FWD cars so having it in the Jetta wasn't very disappointing. I found the car and the drive setup to actually provide extremely predictable handling. What bothered me about FWD was straight-line acceleration. FWD is too quick to spin its front tires, and while you're accelerating in the lower gears (1, 2, or 3) and you hit a manhole or pothole or something, the acceleration would get sharply interrupted, whereas a RWD or AWD car would just continue to power through.

The thing that FWD-haters don't understand about FWD is that when you take it turn you're not gonna be like, "OMFG THE FWD RUINED ME!!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT FWD!!!" FWD's oversteer is only noticeable at the limit, and even then it depends on the car...some FWD systems are much better than others. [headbang]