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[alfa] Re: FWD



At 12:54 PM +0000 9/23/04, alfa-digest wrote:
The only thing really wrong with FWD is that with the front wheels
doing the accelerating, the steering, the driving and the lion's share
of the braking...
George makes a valid point, but I'll tell you what's *really* wrong with FWD--aside from older Citroens, FWD cars always end up with a huge forward weight bias. While driving the rear wheels is usually a better way to go, it's the inherent imbalance of FWD cars that really cripples them. Having that weight bias over your driven wheels is great at low speed in a straight line on ice when you're trying to get up your driveway, but if the ice extends beyond your driveway, you're never going to be able to use all the grip your tires have to offer. Roads have corners, even in America, and my GTV-6 can go around snowy ones faster even than AWD Audis, just because (like FWD cars) they prematurely run out of grip at the front. Of course the AWD car can accelerate out of said corner faster than the GTV-6 can, which is why Audis have dominated several production car racing series over the last 25 years, but when I'm driving in the snow, even if I'm in a hurry, I'd much rather maintain speed through a corner and minimize the amount of braking and accelerating that I have to do on slick, unpredictable surfaces.

-Joe
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