I’ve always heard that rear wheel drive cars are poor in the snow because they don’t have enough weight over their drive axel, so they don’t get as much traction in snow, and contrary to that front wheel drive cars do better because there is the weight of the engine directly over the drive axel. So does that mean a car that is mid engine with rear wheel drive would do well in the snow? Specifically cars like the MR2 and exotics like rear engine lamborghinis and porches. In theory it’s obvious but I’ve never heard it from someone who had experience driving both front engine RWD and mid or rear engine RWD.
I understand it's impractical, but what exactly makes it so unreasonable to make an RF or MF car? I'm talking in depth technical reasons.
Here's my plan... I'm hoping to host a dinner party (Serious Piss-up) to coincide with the launch of the forthcoming Aryton Senna movie.
There will only be two guests, one of whom is a motoring enthusiast but has only driven low power FWD cars, the other is experienced in the way of the oversteer. Before the 'festivities' begin I plan to let the lads loose on my personal 'test circuit' First of all with their own cars, followed by my N/A Toyota Supra, the MR2 Roadster and then the Celica GT4. So It's the same route in a Fwd Corolla, a RWD Supra, A MR MR2 and a 4WD Celica. It should lead to some interesting conversations over the dinner table.
One of the guys needs no instruction, he's only driving a Corolla because he got tired of paying €150 a week on fuel for a 2.5 TT Legacy, I'm not worried about him. The other, he is inexperienced but can follow instructions.
BTW, This is Ireland, home of blind turns and a fear of auto boxes! How do you show someone RWD control on (inevitably) wet roads, or at least instill a sense of caution?
As Im playing through this fantastic game, is it a placebo effect or did they fix the rear wheel drive handling in this game? I remember having to put all my cars to 4 wheel dive in order to make them stable and fast enough. Now it seems that rear wheel drive have an edge on the street while a disadvantage on dirt, off road etc. Is it just me or did they adjust some things?
Considering how powerful a lot of cars are, one of the major factors for how fast they go is where their engine is located compared to the drive wheels. A Dodge Hellcat Challenger needs incredibly sticky tires to do well in an eighth mile event because most of the weight is over the front wheels. The Ferrari 812 Superfast is hitting a wall too because of it's FR layout. You know what doesn't have traction issues? C8 Corvette, Porsche 911 and McLaren 720S, because their engines are either in the middle of the car or over the rear wheels.
It also helps a lot with braking too, making sure that brakes at all 4 corners carry more of the workload. Sure, you have less trunk space and it is a bit harder to build, but we aren't talking about hatchbacks here that need to be super practical...
