Houston CL

I was running against this F150 V8 earier... well anyway, we lined up.... lights went green, we both punch it... guess wat, he kept up with me till my VTEC in 1st kicks in.... of course so on, i pulled away... but the thing is.... I figure our HEAVY front wheel drive really have a big disadvantage... cuz no matter how good you try, still, once the car lift up, the front weight all transfer to the back, all the front tires do are spinning.... but the rear wheel, they just punch and go.... yes yes yes, i know most of yall will say, GET BETTER TIRES..... well but i am sure, if a rear wheel car change to a better tires, they will be EVEN BETTER!!! I guess thats the thing about front wheel drive cars.... oh well!!

Eskimo

Actually, in a straight line drag race FWD will get much better traction than a RWD, especially a pickup! This is because a RWD pickup will have lower rear vehicle weight over the drive wheels.

STi

RWD cars have an adventage in drag racing (or ANY racing, fortaht matter), because of the power of todays's cars, you can hardly control the spin you have on the FWD cars, you can't use all the power because that would just waste time doing wheelspins
RWD cars, you can drop clutch at whatever RPM yoou like to get the desirable launch RPM and wheel slip, and then you can just go full gas utilizing every bit of power you have since the weight is transferred to the rear, keeping the rear tires planted

yu888

while it seems silly to me to be drag racing in our TL's, if dragging in a 4 door sedan is your thing, I'd defintiely recommend looking into a RWD car, as they do fare better in such instances. But, as far as safety and handling for the majority of the drivers I have seen, a FWD car will them them into enough trouble.
just my 2cents.

Vampyre777

my mr2 would grap withen 1 second after dumping the clutch i was pushing around 300 something whp at 18psi . no my type r i am luckey if it graps in first at all little alone second.

Edward'TLS

An excellent comparison between fwd and rwd is by looking at the I35 and the G35. Both of them contain Nissan technology, and have almost comparable engine outputs.

I35 - 255hp VQ V6 fwd on fwd platform
G35 - 260hp VQ V6 rwd on rwd platform

This is the closest-to-best test for fwd vs rwd ever, because the technology differences between different car manufacturers do not come in play here.

mojojojo

Just put in reverse and drive backward........
and ur TL will become a RD Car

DHB

Not that it matters to everyone but the FWD cars will have a decided advantage in poor road conditions such as rain and snow.

Eskimo

Our TL have approx 60/40 weight distribution as does the typical Ford F-150 but Ford only have 40% of its weight over the rear drive wheels. More weight over drive wheels = more traction

Ali

here are pics of my M3, RWD is defitivly alot more fun, but hey FWD isnt bad either, I have 3 FWD cars anyways

STi

you're the one that stole my 330Ci's wheels!!
haha jokes aside, i loved them so much, very nice rims

just wondering, why do you have a ferrari sticker on your car, it just doesn't fit in?

Ali

it was on there when I bought it. the car had alot of internal engine work done, with the final result being around 310-320 NA hp, up from the 240 stock.

STi

wow that much? the guy probably did an engine swap with the euro version eh?

Ali

that was an option, but I decided to go for Euro parts on the engine. I put the Euro air meter in there, JC tuning for the euro HFM, 5 angle valve job, titanium pieces in the head, milled the engine to a 10:8:1 ratio, port and polish, cams, bigger injectors, Dinan intake, better flowing exhaust manifolds, cats, and exhaust. and thats about it. of course I changed everything in the engine too including the head gasket, valves, springs, retainers, lifters, tensioners, thermostat, thermostat housing, bolts, etc... it had perfect compression and it beat E46 M3's and gave M5's their run for the money (beat one guy in a 2001 M5 but dunno if he knew how to shift) also the car had some weight reduction done.

Ali

oh yeah I did all the work, i meant that the guy had the ferrari sticker on there when i bought it. I bought it completely STOCK.

samkws

um...don't ya know FWD cars acclerates faster than RWD cars?? don't laugh..it's true...

it's all about physics

RAdams

What sense does that make?

STi

ya where did you learn your physics?
last time i checked, Ff=mFn, and when a car accelerates, the Fn in the back increase, and thus more friction (or traction, for that matter) on the other hand, the Fn in the front decreases, therefore losing traction

and to put all the power down, you need traction, so unless the RWD car you are talking about is the '86 corrolla and the FWD car you're referring to is the TL-S, a same car with the same weight and the same engine (same everything except drive format) the RWD can kill the FWD car any day

DHB

I agree that RWD should be an advantage in acceleration with ALL things being equal on good road conditions. How much of an advantage I'm not so sure. As a case in point, the G35 is RWD and the 0-60 times between it and the TLS are a dead heat with either car being within .1 sec of each other. When it's that close, it's all about the drivers. When it comes to comparitive acceleration within a class of cars and enjoyment of the car, I don't think a 0-60 difference than is less than .3 is terribly significant.

RAdams

Obviously to make a direct comparison between FWD and RWD, we'd have to "level the playing field" by making all other things equal. Using the G35 and the TL-S as examples, we have different engines, different gearing, different weights, different coefficients of drag, etc. There's no easy way to tell how much each of these factors into acceleration from a stop.

With that being said, I've been to the dragstrip probably 100 times in the last 5 years and I can tell you that RWD is a MAJOR advantage in accelerating from a stop -- especially when you're talking about enough power to overcome the traction of the front tires when you plant the gas pedal.

Eskimo

Here is an expert's view on the age old debate of FWD vs RWD. http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/jk/020619.htm I agree 100% with J.K., especially with the part on the decrease in corner handling ability of FWD, but Houstan CL was talking about a straight line drag.

samkws

well...

when a FWD car going uphill is always easier to pull than a RWD to push up the hill...

so does that make sense??

STi

that could simply be subjective, i don't feel my TL-S pulling stronger uphill than my less hp 330Ci, in fact, i feel more confident because the RWDs are more stable uphills
if you want to accelerate uphill in a FWD car, you may break the front tires loose, and the car may sway, or if the traction control kicks in, you lose momentum

Ali

your 330 might be rated as less hp (hell my M3 was rated less hp than a type S) but drivetrain loss in BMW's is VERY low. Uphill a fwd car is not faster than a RWD car if both have the same traction. the reason a FWD car MIGHT get a faster time going uphill is because RWD would break traction alot easier.

STi

i totally agree with you about the efficiency of BMW's drivetrain

DHB

Excellent post and resource Eskimo. For me the advantage/disadvantage of either approach depends on what you intend to do with the vehicle. I too am primarily a rear wheel drive fan because of the capability it provides in cornering but for general purpose street driving in all-weather conditions, I will always have a FWD vehicle in my stable. To have one that also has the capability to rip a 6.3 second 0-60 and a 61 mph.+ 600-ft slalom makes it a FWD car that I can really enjoy all the time.

samkws

RWD can handle more power and traction than FWD...

but if i put 2 same car with 100hp...different layout

one is FWD, one is RWD

the FWD will get the nod coz of lower weight and without a driveshaft to the rear...

it's a fact that FWD cars pulls easier than a RWD when going uphill...especially from a start...

but on the down side...FWD is not as safe as RWD on downhill...

STi

okay, this may be true in your example, but if you say they're the same car, shouldn't they have the same weight as well?
a reason for this is because if the engine has only 100hp, it cant even break the FWD's front tires loose, then in this case the FWD would win
but if their hp were raised to over 150hp where FWDs would spin off of the line, the RWD should win

where did you get the fact about FWDs going uphill? this doesn't make much sense to me, but i could be wrong
is there a source? i'd like to find out once and for all