Cam Penner
NO it transfers to drivers on the road
same situation
FWD has less traction
In most cars on the road, the weight balance is biased
towards the front. (big heavy engine). This places more
weight over the front wheels.
As a result, on a level surface, the front wheels of the
car have more traction available to them (assuming same
tire size and type on all 4 corners). This means that a
FWD car can deliver more power to the road before wheelspin
than a RWD car. Simple physics. Ff = u x Fn. As Fn
increases with the weight, so does the Ff, which we all
know is the traction available.
This begins to change as the car accelerates. The weight
will begin to transfer rearward, and the front wheels begin
to lose traction, and the rear wheels begin to gain
traction. When the weight bias passes 50/50, the RWD car
has the advantage under acceleration. Again, simple
physics.
Most drivers on the road on a day to day basis do NOT
accelerate hard enough in slippery conditions (and
prudently so) to initiate enough weight transfer to give
RWD a traction advantage. Competition drivers, without
things like pedestrians and other unpredictable traffic to
worry them, can. This is why RWD shows an advantage in
racing.
Hills upset the balance somewhat, as they simulate the
weight transfer of acceleration. This makes FWD have less
drive wheel traction, and RWD have more on uphill starts.
It also gives FWD better acceleration on downhill starts.
(which is rather a moot point in everyday driving)
Corners make a difference too. Under acceleration, FWD
cars have less traction when cornering than RWD. They are
splitting their available traction between acceleration and
steering. This promotes understeer when traction is lost.
RWD cars don't have that limitation on the front, but split
traction the same way at the rear. This is slightly less
likely to cause loss of traction, but it does. Rear wheels
have to split traction between acceleration and cornering.
The result of this traction loss is oversteer. In general,
understeer is easier to recover from than oversteer.
Under braking or coasting, all things are equal between the
2. When decelerating in gear with no brakes applied, RWD
has the advantage of leaving the front wheels with full
traction for cornering, and using the braking force on the
rear wheels only.
Having said all this, I think I can sum it up rather
simply.
1) Both FWD and RWD begin with the same amount of
traction. They just make use of it differently, and have
advantages and disadvantages in various situations.
2) The advantages FWD offers tend to line up with everyday
drivers in everyday situations. RWD offers advantages to
those that push the limits.
3) AWD tends to offer both the advantages and
disadvantages of both, netting out to the best possible
experience (in most worlds).
