<VV> FWD (was supersize wheels), hardly any Corvair

[Robert Marlow]

J R Read_HML wrote:
> Especially if you enjoy running off the edge and into the ditch on icy, 
> curvy roads - or hitting the light pole on the far side of an intersection. 
> Don't these sound like fun things to do?  Not to me, they don't.  No FWD for 
> me.

Anecdotal evidence:  I bought a FWD car very early in the FWD 
changeover:  A Honda Civic in 1974.  I was driving it on a 
snow-and-ice-covered winter day in Ohio, on a crowned two-lane road, 
flat, straight.  Suddenly, the RWD car in front of me fishtailed, and 
fell of the road.  While it was doing this, the RWD car in back of me 
fishtailed, and fell off the road.  I just putted along, straight and 
secure.

This is not to say that I have not experienced FWD understeer in 
slippery conditions.  But I have owned and driven all the combinations 
-- FWD, front-engine RWD, rear-engine RWD, mid-engine RWD, and 4WD.  The 
only thing that makes a FWD car "run off the edge and into the ditch" or 
"hit the light pole on the far side of an intersection" is the same 
thing that made Corvairs unsafe -- pilot error.

Oh -- one more benefit to front drive:  In a pinch, they can be 
converted to rear-engine, rear drive.  Can't get up that slippery hill?  
Turn around and go up backwards.  Works great!

--Bob