[Hell Kuul]

For the sheer pleasure of driving give me a RWD .. a nice gravel road with a lot of tightening sweeping corners and lots of HP... mmm let me think... "oh god "give me a BDA Escort.... then i can die in peace!!!!

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by rider60

people was FWD introduced first or the RWD or AWD?
as far i know Lamborgini i guess introduced the rearengined RWD haveing the engine placed in a horizontal manner like the one in the present FWD cars like accent, maruthi etc say what?

rider60, RWD was first , FWD came next : this is related to the advancement of automotive technology. Rear wheel drives are less complex in terms of technology involved, FWD need drive axles which are independently sprung and with pivots (since steering wheels have always been in front). The ball joints which made efficient FWD possible, came into being later in the automotive evolution. Also, an advantage of FWD was the lower hump which runs along the center of the vehicle :this increases leg-room comfort in the rear seat. One interesting point to be noted is that Mercedes Benz cars (excluding the A class) have always been RWD : they still manage the low central hump by having independently-sprung ball-joint rear wheel drive shafts.

The rear-engined RWD paradigm is for high performance sports cars, in the automotive car segment. This same paradigm also applies to luxury passenger buses (now we are experiencing this in India, thanx to Volvo).

[doomsday]

IMO the drivetrain layout can be summarized as below:

FWD: Originally for the non enthusiastic commuter who wants a car to take him from point A to B. Easy to drive, low maintainence costs.

RWD/AWD: For the enthusiast who wants more from a car than commuting, RWD have an advantage in the 1/4 mile, and on the track as well. AWD for off-road/wet tracks/ Insane Power.

Exception for the first point: Honda Type Rs (Civic and the Integra). They have managed to flush out almost all the negative points of a FWD setup. No FWD cars can manage to handle as well as these two gems from Honda's Type R stable. Tiff Needel and Jason Plato will vouch for that.

[cheap_deal]

Originally Posted by doomsday

Exception for the first point: Honda Type Rs (Civic and the Integra). They have managed to flush out almost all the negative points of a FWD setup. No FWD cars can manage to handle as well as these two gems from Honda's Type R stable. Tiff Needel and Jason Plato will vouch for that.

not to forget the new golf gti!

[Mayavi]

Originally Posted by doomsday

RWD/AWD: For the enthusiast who wants more from a car than commuting, RWD have an advantage in the 1/4 mile, and on the track as well.

Also for the average person who wants a car to take him from point A to B, but turns into an enthusiast every time he sees a curve and floors the pedal to feel the rear slide. Yes, I discovered the pleasures of driving a RWD. My regular routine coming out of office parking lot is to wait at the signal for a left turn and floor the pedal as soon as the light turns green. The ESP light turns on every time. Bliss.

[doomsday]

@ cheap deal: True, the VW Golf GTi is a great handler as well. Although marginally slower than the Civic Type R on the Anglesey race track (Fifth Gear test). In all other aspects, its a great car; especially in Europe with a fantasization of everything European and detestation of everything American or in this case Asian. Brand value- in simple terms.

Originally Posted by Mayavi

Also for the average person who wants a car to take him from point A to B, but turns into an enthusiast every time he sees a curve and floors the pedal to feel the rear slide. Yes, I discovered the pleasures of driving a RWD. My regular routine coming out of office parking lot is to wait at the signal for a left turn and floor the pedal as soon as the light turns green. The ESP light turns on every time. Bliss.

IMO my friend, if you know what an oversteer slide is and how to control it; you are an enthusiast and not an average commuter.

[2fast4u]

Originally Posted by Mayavi

Also for the average person who wants a car to take him from point A to B, but turns into an enthusiast every time he sees a curve and floors the pedal to feel the rear slide. Yes, I discovered the pleasures of driving a RWD. My regular routine coming out of office parking lot is to wait at the signal for a left turn and floor the pedal as soon as the light turns green. The ESP light turns on every time. Bliss.

to increase this new pleasure as you wait for the signal get ur steering turned to full left and now floor the pedal as soon as the light turns green. Keep it floored and now its time to start playing. so much fun!!!!
PS dont knock the light post.

[cheap_deal]

Originally Posted by 2fast4u

to increase this new pleasure as you wait for the signal get ur steering turned to full left and now floor the pedal as soon as the light turns green. Keep it floored and now its time to start playing. so much fun!!!!
PS dont knock the light post.

it will be better to turn the wheel after you have floored the accel pedal and started moving. else you will end up facing the car behind you or doing a donut!!

[doctorque]

RWD is definately for drivers....
otherwise there are those who just want to be driven and for them it doesnt matter what wheels are propelling their cars?
But otherwise a RWD BMW is no less than a dream for me...

[jayguar]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Also the Premier Padminis & teh Ambassador (its still available)

If Iam not wrong then Even the mercs are RWD atleast the older ones were. Correct me if iam wrong

You are absolutely right about the mercs. The older mercs are RWD but am not sure about the newer ones.

[doomsday]

Originally Posted by jayguar

You are absolutely right about the mercs. The older mercs are RWD but am not sure about the newer ones.

All the Mercedes Sedans and sports cars are RWDs. That includes the C,E,S classes and also the SL class, CLK, McLaren SLR. The offroaders i.e. M and G class are 4WD. The puny A-class, however, is a FWD.

[Jeep]

The TATA SUMO and Chevy Tavera also are rear wheel drives, right?

[Harbir]

front wheel drive has some massive advantages that make it the preferred format for 99 percent of drivers.

1. packaging efficiency, when front wheel drive is combined with transverse engine layout. By putting all of the driveline sideways over the front wheels, you create much more interior space for a given body size. A rear wheel drive front engined car will have its gearbox behind its engine and the two of them force the cabin to be shorter, as well as the transmission tunnel is large and takes up room in the cabin. This is a problem with all FE/RWD cars, but particularly when you start getting over 4 cylinders.

2. Traction. With the bulk of the car's weight over the front wheels, the front wheel drive car has much superior traction in poor grip conditions. In India it does not matter so much because india doesn't have snow/ice in most places, but ask an older person about how in the older days, fiats and ambys would get easy stuck in muddy conditions and spin their tyres without moving.

Now, it is becoming important in India again as cars are getting powerful enough to run into traction problems on rain slicked surfaces.

3. front wheel drive cars are much safer for non skilled drivers because they default to safe steady understeer, which is intuitive for most people. If the car isn't turning enough (understeer), you just turn the steering wheel more. upto a point. And if you've completely lost grip, you'll just slide straight till you get grip or you hit something head on. This combined with higher traction capabilities, makes front wheel drive far superior to rwd for most people.


For most people, rear wheel drive does not have the advantage.

the advantages of rear wheel drive:

1. If you have a lot of power, more than about 250hp in today's day, fwd cars will have problems with torque steer. That is, the drive shafts try to turn the wheels on the steering axis, thus causing interference with the steering. Not disastrous, but not fun. As most fast and/or big cars have a lot of power, rear wheel drive is preferred. But I have driven 300hp front wheel drive V8 engine cadillacs that were clearly better for being fwd, even though I prefer rear wheel drive.


2. rear wheel drive allows for yaw control at both ends of the car, but keeps the yaw control at front and rear distinct. In case you're wondering what yaw is, if a you imagine a car having 3 axes, x, y, and z, its rotation about the three axes falls into Pitch, roll, and yaw. if the Y axis goes front to back, x axis side to side, and z axis down to up, with the orgin of the axis in the perfect physical center of the car, the rotation about the x axis is the pitch, rotation about the y axis is the roll, and rotation about the z axis is the yaw.

rear wheel drive gives you an added dimension of yaw control. the steering controls yaw front of the car. driven wheels on a rear wheel drive car provide yaw control from the rear of the car. A well designed and tuned rwd car will have excellent interaction between the two yaw controls (throttle and steering).

THis ability to control your car through a sophisticated integrated blend of throttle and steering is what makes rwd so wonferful for enthusiastic drivers.

But this should not be confused with "good handling". Good handling is not just about yaw but also about pitch and roll, and some of the best handling and/or most fun cars in the world are/were front wheel drive such as 4 round headlight Integra Type R or Renault Clio Williams or the Peugeot 106 Rallye. But in the extreme, a car that has everything as well done as a good front wheel drive car, AND is rear wheel drive will ultimately be the best handling car.


I personally greatly favor rear wheel drive even for normal cars because I like the steering/throttle interaction of rear wheel drives cars, but I know that the best family sedans are all front wheel drive and for very good reasons.

So in short, each has its place. Though I personaly think that Front Wheel Drive is actually Wrong Wheel Drive. I would always prefer a rear wheel drive car, if everything else is equal. I drive rear wheel drive sports cars even in deep winter snow by using winter tyres and making out like a rally driver.

[sumitkalindi]

^^ exactly. As RWD are better for pulling more loads.

A front wheel drive has its own advantages, especially when you take steep terrains, while on plains definately the RWD, is better off, because the momentum generated is better because of better propulsion given from behind.