Front Wheel Drive Vs Rear Wheel Drive vs All Wheel Drive

[mfl]

M

AWD is great if you plan on tracking your car and for improved acceleration out of corners (again, you need to be driving hard to need the traction).

My previous car was LIberty 2.5, a whole 127kw of boredom, but the handling and in the wet was very good and fun. high levels of grip, but obvoiusly the lack of power made traction under acceleration a non-issue.

Usually I dont like FWD, the 2.6 Vectra , I had would attempt to kill you at every corner, especially in the wet.

The GTI is the exception, I wouldn't pick it as front wheel drive 99.9% of the time. -have not felt any torque-steer, Handling and traction is excellent and fun.

If I had the money I would certainy test drive the R, but you certainly wont regret getting the GTI.

[Glennb]

In terms of safety, i wouldn't pick an AWD vehicle over either FWD or RWD if the AWD doesn't have ESC and the other options do.
Having said that, AWD and ESC would be ideal.

[G-rig]

Haven't you heard? The R is going to be between GTI and R32 pricing... that's not expensive

how about when you add leather and xenons to the R, which don't seem to look like standard options..

[Corey_R]

AWD allows you to accelerate and go around corners at the same time (eg wet roundabout), FWD often forces you to wait until the corner straightens up a bit before you can get full acceleration, particularly at lower road speeds and/or slippery surfaces.

AWD really does not allow you to acelerate around corners and better than FWD. They oversteer the same as FWD cars in that instance. This is why rally drivers use the handbrake before a turn, so they can fling the car around and have it pointing the direction of the corner exit and use AWD's superior forward acceleration as quickly as possible, whilst the car's sideways slide motion clears them of the apex. If AWD's really accelerated around corners, then there'd be no need for that.

I do agree that it is easier to accelerate harder earlier out of the corners though.

Golf R may only be available with a DSG (ie no manual gearbox). Some people love DSGs, some don't.

Golf R can be more easily tuned to give much more power (and the engine is built with stronger components).

All indications say that the R will be available in both manual and DSG here still.
As for tuning, the Stage III GTI kit gives you 276KW/521NM. The Stage III R kit gives you 298KW/501NM - so much of a muchness as far as ability to tune either engine without having to replace internals etc.

[Corey_R]

how about when you add leather and xenons to the R, which don't seem to look like standard options..

According to all the articles released so far, Xenon's are going to be standard. If leather is not standard, then that would explain why VW would be making the R cheaper than the R32 so that people who prefer cloth can have it.

Anyway - it'll all be cleared up in a few good months - I was just objecting to you saying that the R would be expensive when everything published is saying it'll either be cheaper or the same as an R32.

[prise]

In fact, that added weight you're carrying will mean you'll need to take the corner SLOWER than an equiv RWD or FWD could carry through it.

Not always true - On a wet road, additonal weight (provided the tyre pressures are increased accordingly) raises the speed at which aquaplaning occurs, and can actually increase mid corner speed. If you've ever owned a very light car with decent width tyres and driven it in heavy rain you'll know what I mean - they can be diabilical (or fun in a strange I'm about to make it on evening news sort of way).

However otherwise I agree with the general sentiment - unless you've got more power than available grip with two wheels, there's not much point to driving an extra two and copping the extra weight and power loss. Also FWD (and AWD obviously) is inherently safer for an unskilled driver than RWD, however modern electronics has levelled the playing field in this area.

I've owned RWD (commodore, falcon and early corolla), FWD (Pulsar, Mazda6) and AWD (MY99 WRX and Mazda6 MPS) and wouldn't bother with AWD again unless I had lots and lots of power or wanted to drive on dirt. RWD is definitely more fun than FWD if you have fast enough hands to catch the back when it lets go (not on a public road of course).

A limited slip diff on a FWD car is a good thing to have.

Having said all of this there's something addictive about the drive out of a corner you get with a good AWD setup. I'm convinced that one of the reasons the EVO's and WRX's are so popular at track day events is that its easier for an average punter to drive fast, as in you can stuff up the corner entry and still have reasonable speed at the exit. Not all AWD systems are created equal however. The 6MPS feels a lot btter driving out of corners than my MY99 WRX did due to a more balanced torque split front/back. The subaru had too much torque going to the front wheels so it still suffered corner exit understeer..

[noowve]

Given the nature of the OP's question, I think it is important to point out that FWD offers two key benefits:

The first is safety: as stated, under power, handling instability (in terms being in transition towards out of control) for a FWD is almost always "understeer" (which means it will run wider in a corner than the direction its wheels are pointed). So why is FWD "safer"? Because the natural reaction in such conditions is to lift off power, and that will nearly always reduce the understeering condition, so FWD cars tend to be more 'failsafe'. You can't generalise the same way on the characteristics of a RWD car.

The second is cost: integration of the engine and transmission in one unit saves design, manufacturing and assembly costs. That means FWD cars are cheaper to buy than RWD.

AWD does provide a benefit in wet, slippery conditions. Many people encounter these frequently (eg, a wet roundabout) so may be prepared to pay the premium (although base Subies aren't all that expensive)

All modern cars are pretty safe to drive in most conditions at normal road speeds. If you spend more, these days you generally get more electronic driver aids that can compensate (to some degree) for driver skills.

If you want to do more than that, then some advanced driver training is a must, regardless of the configuration of the car.

As to the driveability of a 300Kw FWD car, I can only quote Neil Bates on this, who repeatedly says that 200Kw is as much as you can useably put through FWD, and still drive around corners!

Timbo, alot of members here are talking up RWD.. I think FWD in this case GTI has good enough technology to replicate rear wheel drive and i think it can be as fun. As far as understeer goes, GTI has XDL to counter understeer and it would perform exactly with vehicle that has RWD. I was very negative about FWD at first, but after seeing what the FWD especially the GTI can do in corners, i would say it match up with RWD cars or even better. More fun to i must add.

[noowve]

My previous car was LIberty 2.5, a whole 127kw of boredom, but the handling and in the wet was very good and fun. high levels of grip, but obvoiusly the lack of power made traction under acceleration a non-issue.

Usually I dont like FWD, the 2.6 Vectra , I had would attempt to kill you at every corner, especially in the wet.

The GTI is the exception, I wouldn't pick it as front wheel drive 99.9% of the time. -have not felt any torque-steer, Handling and traction is excellent and fun.

If I had the money I would certainy test drive the R, but you certainly wont regret getting the GTI.

thanks for the info, i am sure i won't regret getting the GTI being a FWD, i think these days technology in cars are so advance they can pretty much take away those understeer and really replicate as much fun as it would on a RWD.. definitely getting the GTI end of this month

[gtimal]

For 99% of driving on roads a well sorted FWD will be more than enough ,for the other 1% you'll end up getting your car crushed after 2 warnings

Cheers

[ricksterrr]

Timbo, alot of members here are talking up RWD.. I think FWD in this case GTI has good enough technology to replicate rear wheel drive and i think it can be as fun. As far as understeer goes, GTI has XDL to counter understeer and it would perform exactly with vehicle that has RWD. I was very negative about FWD at first, but after seeing what the FWD especially the GTI can do in corners, i would say it match up with RWD cars or even better. More fun to i must add.

No arguments that a GTI with FWD is helluva lot of fun on public twisty roads... but it's much harder to discern the differences b/w FWD RWD and AWD on public roads simply because it's much harder to find the limits of the car whilst trying to keep to a speed limit AND keeping to the right side of the road.

However at a race track, where there's smooth tarmac, huge run off areas and no public traffic where you've got the freedom to really push the car to its absolute limits, it's a completely different story. This is where the characteristics of FWD RWD and AWD can really be felt and where you'll find that the GTI, although still brilliant, will show it's inherent weaknesses in its FF drivetrain compared to others. Actually over a long period of time on a race track, I'd say that the XDL system on the GTI would turn into a disadvantage as it will contribute more to brake fade (the brakes working hard on every corner to tame understeer).

For the hardcore track day enthusiasts, you'll find that the vast majority would much prefer RWD and AWD over FWD cars when racing on the track. FWD cars and its tendency to understeer really limits how quickly a driver can go around a race track.

But if you're only going to the odd track day and spending most of the time tackling the twisties on our public roads, then a nice handling and fast FWD car such as the GTI is still just as fun and enjoyable to drive as any other AWD or RWD car!