front wheel drive vs rear wheel drive

[Donney]

I think FWD is faster when the driver is average but in the hands of a top driver, I think RWD could be faster.

[RallyCat909]

From a spectators point of view, all the rallies that I have been at, the cars that get all the "oooooohh!!' and "aaaaaahh yeah!" have been RWD cars. Sure AWD is faster, but do you see Porsche, BMW and even the occasional Ferrari on rally stages anymore like their was in the 80s?

There is no exoctica in rallying.

poop

[Magnus]

This have been discussed on some threads in the last years...
The higher the traction, the less is the difference, though FWDs generelly has the upper hand, simply because to drive with a slight understeer is generally better than to drive with oversteer.

[LeonBrooke]

With an FWD car, when you get off the throttle you push the driven front wheels into the road, increase front-end grip, cancel out understeer and tighten the car's line. Therefore in theory a FWD car is faster. Mind you, you can't really say categorically that one configuration is faster than the other - look at the WTCC, which other people have referenced, and see that the FWD cars are pretty much evenly matched with the RWD BMWs.

[AndyRAC]

From a spectators point of view, all the rallies that I have been at, the cars that get all the "oooooohh!!' and "aaaaaahh yeah!" have been RWD cars. Sure AWD is faster, but do you see Porsche, BMW and even the occasional Ferrari on rally stages anymore like their was in the 80s?

There is no exoctica in rallying.

poop

I agree, the biggest cheers are when the RWD cars are on stage - mainly Escort MkI & mK II's. Look at the success of the Roger Albert Clark Rally - nearly all RWD, fantastic stuff. I think an 'ordinary' driver can look good in a RWD car, whereas in a FWD car it's a lot harder. Remember the BRC in the F2 era, now they were fantastic looking and sounding cars - and because the drivers wrung their necks. How many road cars are RWD??? Not many, so from that point of view maybe the WRC should be FWD, personally speaking I'd like to see all 3 variants in the WRC - Let the 2WD cars have more power than 4WD (or something to level the playing field), i;e 4WD Less power,more traction - 2WD more power,less traction.

[Daniel]

With an FWD car, when you get off the throttle you push the driven front wheels into the road, increase front-end grip, cancel out understeer and tighten the car's line. Therefore in theory a FWD car is faster. Mind you, you can't really say categorically that one configuration is faster than the other - look at the WTCC, which other people have referenced, and see that the FWD cars are pretty much evenly matched with the RWD BMWs.

IIRC the RWD cars are ballasted in the WTCC.

[tmx]

On many occasions RWD can match up with AWD on fast straight tarmac rallies. I prefer driving FWD cars myself since I feel it's much easier to corner and more predictable. For WRC for twisty gravel rallies I guess they tune the card toward the FWD style.

[urabus-denoS2000]

Nonsense - there aren't any modern RWD rally cars to compare the modern FWD cars with, if there were the RWD would be faster.

Away from International Rallying where only homologated cars are permitted & you'll find that RWD is still highly competitive, particularly in the UK & Ireland.

Look at the results of the Galway National Rally that ran in Ireland over the wekend. The first eight places were RWD, 9th was 4WD and the highest FWD was 13th. The winning National car (a Mk2 Escort) was faster than all except the top ten International cars (4 WRC, 5 N4 & 1 S2000), all 4WD.

Maybe that is the case in Ireland,but we have twisty roads with little straights.That depends on the roads and drivers.FWD has a lot more traction on these twisty kinds of stages.
From a spectators point of view there is no doubt which is better.In Slovenia there is a regular zero-car,a Mazda MX-5.It is spectacular.

[Daniel]

On many occasions RWD can match up with AWD on fast straight tarmac rallies. I prefer driving FWD cars myself since I feel it's much easier to corner and more predictable. I am GUESSING that WRC for twisty rallies I guess they tune the differential and axel more toward the FWD style.

With the 306 Maxi and Xsara Kit car they had active diffs and at least one of them had a sort of traction system that cut ignition to one or more cylinders when wheelspin was detected.

Both of the cars above would absolutely murder the 4wd cars on dry tarmac.

[LeonBrooke]

IIRC the RWD cars are ballasted in the WTCC.

Yes, but as far as I'm aware this is mainly to equalise the standing starts.