Hey I was doing some research, but I just wanted your opinions. Are the any advantages of FWD vs AWD? I already know the basics of why AWD is better, but I haven't seen much info on weather FWD has any advantage at all.

 

FWD gets better gas mileage. Also, since there's less moving parts, there's less stuff to break.

Otherwise, in performance, AWD is better. Better traction, better steering. Both tend to understeer.

 

fwd,,as not bad,,but just for cassual driving,,for ladys,for normal drivin,,,but with awd or rwd you can drive better ,the car has better performance,,and better traction,,.
rwd and awd are more agrresive,,i would say awd is the best option from all this three,but its hard to find our really quick how the car is gonna behave in some curves..awd is very good for snow,for raind,for gravel..also ist the fwd but not so good,and rwd is weak for snow and rain,you have to drive more carfully,cuz you can understeer very easily..

 

As far as putting power to the wheels, on a dyno FWD would show less of a drive train loss since your not sending power to the other 2 wheels right? But in a real world application (where it matters) AWD would be able to handle the power better from a launch due to the better traction.

But from a rolling start (say 20 mph), if 2 cars had equal base power and torque and the only difference was AWD vs FWD, which would be faster in the 1/4 mile or 0 - 60 time? The cars would be exactly the same weight, height off the ground, same BHP, weather would be ~65 degrees Fahrenheit on dry race track pavement, same gas, graphs read exactly the same as far as curves go, (but I would assume the AWD would show less HP on a dyno due to drive train loss)

Correct me if my understanding is wrong. And sorry for the bad grammar, I typed this in a rush.

 

What you say may hold true, but only if the power is LOW. An AWD car will put the power to the ground better than a FWD car. If the power is high enough, even a 20MPH rolling start won't help the FWD car, and all things being equal a RWD or AWD car will always beat a FWD in a 0-60 run. I'm not saying you can't build a FWD car that'll beat a RWD or AWD car. I'm just saying that RWD and AWD cars have the advantage in 0-60 runs, and with high power engines they still have the advantage from a rolling start.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you said, but RWD cars tend OVER-steer under acceleration in low traction conditions. Over-steer as in the car turns MORE than you told it to.

Under-steer is when the car turns LESS than you told it to. I.E. the car tends to go straighter than you're turning the wheel.

Both conditions (Under-steer and Over-steer) can be dangerous if the car exhibits too much of one or the other. FWD cars under-steer a LOT more than they over-steer, and they rarely exhibit power-over-steer. The most common over-steer condition for a FWD car is during 'throttle lift' or under braking, and that usually only happens on FWD cars that have 'sport tuned suspensions'.

AWD cars are more forgiving than FWD and RWD cars. I prefer the handling of a well set up RWD car over AWD or FWD. So then why am I driving a FWD Lancer? Well, insurance is a MF... ya know?

 

A couple of people have referred to the "traction" advantage of RWD/AWD. Here's why:

When you accelerate weight shifts to the rear of the car. More weight on an axle means more friction between the tires and the ground. This works in favor of any car with driven rear wheels (RWD or AWD). This is an advantage when accelerating from a stop or at any speed.

This is why people say it's very hard to get a FWD car to have very low 0-60 times. The harder you accelerate, the greater the weight transfer to the rear, and the less traction for the front wheels.

Notice that the front end of a car may jump off the ground in a drag race.

Having the front-mounted engine over driven front wheels does give FWD an advantage over RWD in snow. The weight of the engine is over the driven wheels. However, this traction advantage really only holds when the car isn't accelerating quickly (not a problem in snow).

 

Personally i think fwd is the worst to drive in the snow. you may get better traction initially, but in any case were u have some speed built up and u let go of the accelerator, u have an instant brake in the front of ur car causing ur tail end to start sliding out. at this point you have next to no control over where the tail of your car is going to go. with a rwd car, that braking action from your engine happens on ur rear wheels and the rear doesnt kick out on you. I used to drive a rwd 5spd van, and i could drive it so much harder in the winter just because of this reason. Now everytime i take my lancer out in the snow, i have my hand on the ebrake just in case i need to have some fun :-D

 

FRs(front engine, rear wheel drive) do suck in snow but what about MRs(mid-engine, rear wheel drive)?

It's a fact that AWD is better FF, FR, and MR. AWD can do everything the others can and AWD has superior grip and stability than the others.

 

True and not .. I mean
Yeah for grip and stability AWD is better.
But you loose more power too. (It's said ff about 15% drivetrain loss, while rear and awd are about 25%).
So for a highway start the ff will generally perform better unless you get some power. While the awd will be better the rest of the time.
But well, I learned fast enough that it don't take that much power to get wheelspin even on the highway so it's only goid if you wanna stick with low power.

 

Wow there are some misconceptions in this thread.
AWD shows the highest drivetrain lose of the three main types (AWD, FWD and RWD). This is because there is more machinery inbetween the motor and the wheels namely diffs.
The major advantage to AWD is traction, even in high hp cases, there is little to no wheelspin. At the same time, AWD is a disadvantage once the car is moving because less actual power gets down to the ground. If you put two equally powered cars together, one FWD and one AWD, the AWD car would naturally win from a stop but the FWD car would be able to hold its own or win from a roll.
AWD is not the most forgiving arrangement, FWD is. In an AWD car, it exhibits the properties of both a FWD and a RWD car. When you enter a corner, it acts like a RWD car and when you leave a corner, it acts like a FWD car. This is great if you know what you're doing but can be a pain when you're not used to it.
FWD is the best in snow next to AWD. This is simply because of the difference between a pulling motion and a pushing motion.
There is no truly superior arrangement, they all have their advantages and their disadvantages.

 

Another point . . .

An AWD system means adding considerable weight to the vehicle.

The current issue of Automobile Magazine lists one of the new EVO models as weighing just shy of 3,600 lbs! Not all of that weight gain over the regular Lancer is the AWD system, but I'm betting a lot of it is.

Granted, there aren't many cars under 3,000 lbs these days, but 3,600 lbs is a bit of a porker!

 

more than just power to the wheels!

a tire can do 3 things: stop, go and turn all of these will use a percentage of that tires grip.

When you are in a FWD car you are asking your tires to accelerate and turn. Without getting to complicated talking about friction circles and stuff: a fwd car ask its tires to do more than they would in an AWD or RWD car where the 'task' can be more equally divided.

This is why most FWD cars will understeer tragically. This too a lesser extent hurts the awd cars too. Which means our entrance speeds into a curve is best descirbed as slow in fast out.

There are some reasons tho that the AWD cars have been heavily restricted in Speeds Touring Car and GT series. Poor little vettes and vipers were getting owned by Gallotti and poor little acuras were getting shredded by Chip Herr. Both driving Audis. The BMW's in TV are also heavily restricted to even up the field for the FWD's. Some would say that its too much now because the FWD cars are just plain driving away from them in the straights....

 

Just curious, can you explain what you mean about the pulling and pushing?

 

If you think about a FWD car, the driving wheels are in the front and essentially pull the rest of the car along. By contrast in a RWD car, the wheels push the rest of the car along.

 

Can you explain why pulling is an advantage?