RWD vs. FWD vs. AWD
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lambertsonic
New member
I really liked my Audi Quattro but ill have to pick rwd for driving enjoyment .
laborsmith
New member
I have owned them all, in manual and automatic flavors.
My all time favorite is the SAAB Sonett III, FWD, 4sp manual, fourth OD.
It had a Ford Taunus V4 engine, was about 13 feet long, 5 feet wide, and I think 44 inches tall. Not as tall as our Sonics. CD was .27, if memory is correct.
By the way, the SAAB is about to return to production (in 9-3 and 9-5 flavors) in China.
Laborsmith
My all time favorite is the SAAB Sonett III, FWD, 4sp manual, fourth OD.
It had a Ford Taunus V4 engine, was about 13 feet long, 5 feet wide, and I think 44 inches tall. Not as tall as our Sonics. CD was .27, if memory is correct.
By the way, the SAAB is about to return to production (in 9-3 and 9-5 flavors) in China.
Laborsmith
lambertsonic
New member
Although I have never owned a Saab , I always liked them . But Volvos to my eyes were better built than gm owned saabs. Pre gm Saab were the best .
Swordsmith
242hp/252 ft-lbs BNR EFI
FWD pulls the car in line for easy correction. RWD stays put a little better but its harder to correct if you start to slip. Never had an AWD so I imagine it does both: slips out easy and hard to right if it does. No I can't back that up.
theenico
New member
I'll try to keep this short, but the original question is very open ended.
First answer is a question: What are you doing with the car?
Drifting: RWD wins hands down unless you are a crazy Finnish dude with an Audi 90 quattro painted like the General Lee (Bing it
)
Everything else: AWD wins, but there's a caveat. Audi showed up in the early 80's with the first rendition of quattro in rally and dominated Group B. When Group B was axed, they went road racing with IMSA and the SCCA Trans AM series in the late 80's and early 90's. Again, they dominated, were penalized with lots of weight, continued to dominate, and were subsequently banned. This happened again in the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) with the Audi A4's in the late 90's.
Special Applications: FWD has its place and can have advantages, but the next summary will explain why it is least desirable.
Mother Nature, physics, and the friction circle: Your tire's contact patches are your vehicles only attachment to the road. They can only be expected to do so much at any given point in time. They can be used for braking, accelerating, and turning; but asking them to do more than one at the same time is where it gets fun.
This is where RWD and AWD have their advantages. In RWD the front tires are along for the ride most of the time and are really only asked to work under braking and turning. In AWD all the tires share the work in a hippie commune permaculture sustainability kumbaya (sp) kind of way. With FWD, the front tires are the b1tch a33 nizzle doing all the accelerating, braking, and most of the turning.
Unless you are driving an extremely light original Mini in the Monte Carlo Rally of 1966, FWD is not the ringer for top level motorsports. That is why sanctioning bodies like the SCCA cater to different people and different cars.
:banana:
Edit: It's Friday and I'm about to start the second six pack, so if this doesn't make sense or is a little over the top, my bad.
First answer is a question: What are you doing with the car?
Drifting: RWD wins hands down unless you are a crazy Finnish dude with an Audi 90 quattro painted like the General Lee (Bing it
)Everything else: AWD wins, but there's a caveat. Audi showed up in the early 80's with the first rendition of quattro in rally and dominated Group B. When Group B was axed, they went road racing with IMSA and the SCCA Trans AM series in the late 80's and early 90's. Again, they dominated, were penalized with lots of weight, continued to dominate, and were subsequently banned. This happened again in the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) with the Audi A4's in the late 90's.
Special Applications: FWD has its place and can have advantages, but the next summary will explain why it is least desirable.
Mother Nature, physics, and the friction circle: Your tire's contact patches are your vehicles only attachment to the road. They can only be expected to do so much at any given point in time. They can be used for braking, accelerating, and turning; but asking them to do more than one at the same time is where it gets fun.
This is where RWD and AWD have their advantages. In RWD the front tires are along for the ride most of the time and are really only asked to work under braking and turning. In AWD all the tires share the work in a hippie commune permaculture sustainability kumbaya (sp) kind of way. With FWD, the front tires are the b1tch a33 nizzle doing all the accelerating, braking, and most of the turning.
Unless you are driving an extremely light original Mini in the Monte Carlo Rally of 1966, FWD is not the ringer for top level motorsports. That is why sanctioning bodies like the SCCA cater to different people and different cars.
:banana:
Edit: It's Friday and I'm about to start the second six pack, so if this doesn't make sense or is a little over the top, my bad.
A properly setup vehicle will overcome its factory presets and change the way anything is set to drive.
But a general rule is, fwd push rwd slide awd does both
Fwd will understeer, just let off the gas and the car will eventually hook up, slow around a track
Rwd will oversteer. correct and keep going... Fast around a track
Awd is a bit different. A fwd biased awd setup will under steer then push out as the rear wheel engage, very slow. most evo sti are like this
Rwd biased awd cars will oversteer then grip with front tires to pull through corner, very fast... G35 gtr type
fwd is novice
Rwd is rewarding
Awd can make you look like a champ
Of coarse there are accept ions but the usually hold true
But a general rule is, fwd push rwd slide awd does both
Fwd will understeer, just let off the gas and the car will eventually hook up, slow around a track
Rwd will oversteer. correct and keep going... Fast around a track
Awd is a bit different. A fwd biased awd setup will under steer then push out as the rear wheel engage, very slow. most evo sti are like this
Rwd biased awd cars will oversteer then grip with front tires to pull through corner, very fast... G35 gtr type
fwd is novice
Rwd is rewarding
Awd can make you look like a champ
Of coarse there are accept ions but the usually hold true
ThatTmoGuy
New member
You both pretty much touched on allot of the things to setup what I have to say about all of this.
For general every day driving FWD WINS, hands down. First off its more efficient to pull weight than push it so you get a sense of more power plus better MPG. Traction is less of an issue because of the weight of the motor on the wheels so it is better in the weather than RWD and with the extra weight and moving parts of AWD you lose that MPG bonus and up the parasitic (sp) power loss and cost of maintenance.
RWD wins in fun department for many people but AWD is the performer
They all have many different handling aspects especially if you consider midship and rear engine platforms which can both be either RWD or AWD. I'm sure if someone wanted to build a rear or mid mounted engine FWD car they could but that would be stupid.
FWD has problems with wheel hop, under steer, and torque steer. None of these lend well in most motor sports unless you tune or drive in a specific manner to benefit from them.
RWD means traction issues like burn outs and over steer, over steer has become a very important part of a very popular motor sport and if you don't know what I'm talking about go kill yourself.
AWD is the true star in motor sports because you get the benefits of both RWD and FWD and if driven properly not very many of the weaknesses of either.
For general every day driving FWD WINS, hands down. First off its more efficient to pull weight than push it so you get a sense of more power plus better MPG. Traction is less of an issue because of the weight of the motor on the wheels so it is better in the weather than RWD and with the extra weight and moving parts of AWD you lose that MPG bonus and up the parasitic (sp) power loss and cost of maintenance.
RWD wins in fun department for many people but AWD is the performer
They all have many different handling aspects especially if you consider midship and rear engine platforms which can both be either RWD or AWD. I'm sure if someone wanted to build a rear or mid mounted engine FWD car they could but that would be stupid.
FWD has problems with wheel hop, under steer, and torque steer. None of these lend well in most motor sports unless you tune or drive in a specific manner to benefit from them.
RWD means traction issues like burn outs and over steer, over steer has become a very important part of a very popular motor sport and if you don't know what I'm talking about go kill yourself.
AWD is the true star in motor sports because you get the benefits of both RWD and FWD and if driven properly not very many of the weaknesses of either.
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sx sonic
New member
I love RWD, it provides so much more control, its like haveing extra tools in the garage. Oversteer, understeer, or neutral handling is at your foots mercy.
Fwd your usually stuck with understeer, yea there's things you can do to remedy that problem but those techniques work pretty universally.
Driven lots of AWD but never got to push em hard so idk. More traction but I'm all about driving expierence and haven't gotten a chance to really see how they are in that regard
duhveed
New member
I've had them all.
2008 Cobalt SS/TC
2011 Evo X
2007 C6 Z06
I've got to say with AWD you have so much more confidence in turns. BUT the Vette is a lot more fun to drive it teaches you to be more careful lol. Going from the Evo to the Vette is a complete driving style change. The cobalt was awesome I had a fat swaybar in the back and it also handled great.
2008 Cobalt SS/TC
2011 Evo X
2007 C6 Z06
I've got to say with AWD you have so much more confidence in turns. BUT the Vette is a lot more fun to drive it teaches you to be more careful lol. Going from the Evo to the Vette is a complete driving style change. The cobalt was awesome I had a fat swaybar in the back and it also handled great.
qwed94
New member
Well again. What are you asking exactly?
Almost everybody said RWD was the most fun---RIGHT!!!
Almost everyone said FWD is the best for DD---YES & NO!!!
AWD is the cats meow in rain. Yes RAIN AWD is completely stable on water slicked roads. AWD is also very good on snow, but 4WD is even better on snow IMO. Even though 4WD is only 2WD-meaning RR and LF is the pulling wheels on a 4WD (unless you have a posi in the rear then you have RR-LR-LF pulling)
4WD is a completely synchronized system. NO push/pull effect in snow
AWD is not synchronized. Slight push/pull in snow. (especially a big heavy wet snow)
AWD is the best for situations where you might get stuck because they can place ALL POWER down to a single wheel if necessary.
Almost everybody said RWD was the most fun---RIGHT!!!
Almost everyone said FWD is the best for DD---YES & NO!!!
AWD is the cats meow in rain. Yes RAIN AWD is completely stable on water slicked roads. AWD is also very good on snow, but 4WD is even better on snow IMO. Even though 4WD is only 2WD-meaning RR and LF is the pulling wheels on a 4WD (unless you have a posi in the rear then you have RR-LR-LF pulling)
4WD is a completely synchronized system. NO push/pull effect in snow
AWD is not synchronized. Slight push/pull in snow. (especially a big heavy wet snow)
AWD is the best for situations where you might get stuck because they can place ALL POWER down to a single wheel if necessary.
ThatTmoGuy
New member
IMHO each drivetrain layout has its benefits and draw backs.
There are way too many variables to try and say 1 is the best at everything or even one particular thing.
The most common layouts have the motor in the front of the vehicle. A vehicle can be considered a midship by placing the majority of the motor behind the front axle center line like the new GT-R. Midship could also mean the mass of the motor is in front of the rear axle center line. Then you have rear mounted engines like Porsche's. Even if you only consider RWD in these three layouts each is different.
So here are all the layouts.
FF- front engine front wheel drive
RWD - front engine rear wheel drive
AWD - front engine all wheel drive
MRR- rear mounted mid engine rear wheel drive
MFR - front mounted mid engine rear wheel drive
RAWD- rear engine rear wheel drive
MRAWD- rear mounted midship all wheel drive
MFAWD - front mounted midship all wheel drive.
One more thing to account for is transmission placement. The C6 vette and GT-R both have a trans axle mounted to the rear axle to shift the balance in Weight.
There are way too many variables to try and say 1 is the best at everything or even one particular thing.
The most common layouts have the motor in the front of the vehicle. A vehicle can be considered a midship by placing the majority of the motor behind the front axle center line like the new GT-R. Midship could also mean the mass of the motor is in front of the rear axle center line. Then you have rear mounted engines like Porsche's. Even if you only consider RWD in these three layouts each is different.
So here are all the layouts.
FF- front engine front wheel drive
RWD - front engine rear wheel drive
AWD - front engine all wheel drive
MRR- rear mounted mid engine rear wheel drive
MFR - front mounted mid engine rear wheel drive
RAWD- rear engine rear wheel drive
MRAWD- rear mounted midship all wheel drive
MFAWD - front mounted midship all wheel drive.
One more thing to account for is transmission placement. The C6 vette and GT-R both have a trans axle mounted to the rear axle to shift the balance in Weight.
14T6MT
New member
I came from an AWD Subaru Forester S (rear LSD!) and would have bought a used WRX if the mileage weren't so bad. AWD is so fun to drive fast in rain and snow. My forester was slow, but in a blizzard it was unstoppable and it had a stupid amount of grip.
The most fun cars I've driven were a WRX and Audi A4 1.8T, both manual of course.
If money were not an issue I'd have a WRX STi and a BRZ STi (when it comes out) sitting in my garage....oh yea, and I'd have a garage in the first place...and a house attached to that garage...
The most fun cars I've driven were a WRX and Audi A4 1.8T, both manual of course.
If money were not an issue I'd have a WRX STi and a BRZ STi (when it comes out) sitting in my garage....oh yea, and I'd have a garage in the first place...and a house attached to that garage...
ThatTmoGuy
New member
If money wasn't a problem I'd give Jay Leno a run for his money so to speak.
$ub$onic
The Sticker Guy
I'd think we all would
Thaifight-R
Pika Pii!!!
Bet you can't do this with rwd/awd. lololol
PARALLEL PARKING TRICK HONDA CIVIC - YouTube
Just did that with the Sonic the other day. haha so useful
I still would prefer rwd though. :/
lolololPARALLEL PARKING TRICK HONDA CIVIC - YouTube
Just did that with the Sonic the other day. haha so useful
I still would prefer rwd though. :/