<VV> Re: drive wheels

[Ray Rodriguez]

I suppose its a bit late, but I have to put my 2 cents in here.....

     I have to largely agree with mark.  The main benefit that most people appreciate about front drive is the weight of the engine giving the drive wheels more traction.  

     Rear drive wheels is better in my opinion in every respect but one (detailed below).  The key is to have a relatively well balanced car.  Rear drive performance cars in particular have far too little weight over the rear wheels.   A rear engine rear drive car gets fantastic traction to help you get it moving, but generally lack weight over the front wheels for steering.  Weighting the front is probably the answer to this problem.  I used sand bags in the trunk of my old daily driver vair' in the winter time.

     The primary reasons I feel front wheel drive is inferior are 1) When you accelerate weight transfers to the rear wheels, and traction is reduced, and 2) when you are going up a hill weight transfers to the rear and traction is reduced.  Obviously these are two of the main times you need traction!!  

     The one benefit of front drive I will give in to is that it is occasionally nice to be able to change the direction of thrust with the steering wheel.  

     On one final note, my father (now 80 and retired) was once a master automotive technician, he was even involved in writing the automotive tech certification tests that predated ASE.  

     According to my father (whose information is largely outdated) the primary reasons for going to front wheel drive were NOT that it was superior in any way, but that it allowed them to build smaller cars with more interior space, and that it was actually cheaper to build cars this way. 


Ray Rodriguez
CORSA member
65' Corsa coupe 140/4