08-15-2004, 06:45 PM
Vicious, I've driven both drive trains as well and I grew up in Michigan which is home to bad weather. Where I grew up we called summer three months of bad sledding.
With the FWD cars I found it much easier to get into a skid going around a corner and not have anything to do about it other than let off the gas and hope for the best or possibly use the handbrake to pull something off.
With my RWD cars cornering was much more of an art and I found that I could pull out of some crazy difficult stuff.
I managed to put both types of cars in ditches because I was always pushing the edge for that thrill. AWD almost takes the fun out of things these days because of how much traction it has. Even when I break free, recovery is super simple.
The main thing I don't like about FWD is that the tires are responsible for both steering and accelleration. This puts a lot more demand on those tires and the grip they provide.
Think about cars that are raced in just about any style of racing. They are either AWD, 4WD or RWD. There are specialty classes that are all FWD but those cars just can't compete against the other styles (although I'm still trying to figure out how a Chevette is the regional ice racing champion over Subaru and Audi here in Ontario). These are the same cars that race through heavy rains and other poor racing conditions from NASCAR to ALMS to F-1... it's all RWD.
Read THIS LINK that I posted earlier again and tell me why FWD is better than RWD.
The whole argument of being pulled through the turn just doesn't wash with me. I find that if I'm slipping in a FWD car and give 'er just a little more gas that I end up slipping more with my cars direction unchanged. If the same situation happens with my RWD car and I give 'er a little gas, I'm still slipping but I've rotated and started getting more traction to make the turn.
With the FWD cars I found it much easier to get into a skid going around a corner and not have anything to do about it other than let off the gas and hope for the best or possibly use the handbrake to pull something off.
With my RWD cars cornering was much more of an art and I found that I could pull out of some crazy difficult stuff.
I managed to put both types of cars in ditches because I was always pushing the edge for that thrill. AWD almost takes the fun out of things these days because of how much traction it has. Even when I break free, recovery is super simple.
The main thing I don't like about FWD is that the tires are responsible for both steering and accelleration. This puts a lot more demand on those tires and the grip they provide.
Think about cars that are raced in just about any style of racing. They are either AWD, 4WD or RWD. There are specialty classes that are all FWD but those cars just can't compete against the other styles (although I'm still trying to figure out how a Chevette is the regional ice racing champion over Subaru and Audi here in Ontario). These are the same cars that race through heavy rains and other poor racing conditions from NASCAR to ALMS to F-1... it's all RWD.
Read THIS LINK that I posted earlier again and tell me why FWD is better than RWD.
The whole argument of being pulled through the turn just doesn't wash with me. I find that if I'm slipping in a FWD car and give 'er just a little more gas that I end up slipping more with my cars direction unchanged. If the same situation happens with my RWD car and I give 'er a little gas, I'm still slipping but I've rotated and started getting more traction to make the turn.
Gullible isn't in the dictionary.