What are FWD cars good for?

driving, LOL

Maximizing interior cabin space and minimizing production costs, while providing a tame driving characteristic for the below-average commuter.

They are also generally better in the snowbelt than RWD. -More weight over the drive wheels.

Predictible handling; when you suddenly lift or brake near the traction limit in a FWD setup the car's a little less likely to go right friggin' sideways on you than in RWD.

Also, the sideaffect of having a frontward weight bias is a tendancy towards sharper handling transitions, which is part of the reason why performance FWD cars have proportionally very good magazine slalom speeds, per my sig quote.

Its also less suicidal if you drive in snow, tho I'm told if you know what you're doing, RWD is perfectly safe, which I believe.

I'm told its cheaper to manufacture FWD cars too.

as far as bang for your buck, FWD cars are the cheapest cars with the best handling, however, RWD and AWD cars will out handles us any day. However, its easy to learn car control in a FWD vs a RWD because RWD's will lose control in a corner alot eaiser

FWD is good cuz its cheap, offers safe handling, easier packaging,

Originally posted by zal
FWD cars are the cheapest cars with the best handling, however, RWD and AWD cars will out handles us any day.

Best handling, but RWD + AWD outhandle?

IMHO, i feel that the best would be a rear-wheel drive car as far as handling goes. With a FWD car, you are both trying to steer and move the car with the same wheels, resulting in a variety of factors, such as uneven tire wear between rear and front tires, less traction as the front wheels are trying to do so much at any given time.

I've found that my old RWD Volvo handled ALOT better than a relatvies FWD corolla with all brand new snow tires on it, and i had all seasons that were wore down but i had 2 bags of sand in the trunk weighing me down a tad.

It may just be me, but i find RWD cars are alot funner, and handle alot better.

for the price? our cars are MUCH easier to drive. in a corner at high speeds an AWD or RWD will take us, but on the every day stuff its harder to lose control of a FWD vs a RWD. not to mention that FWD cars are always cheaper than their AWD counterparts and RWD cars

you wanna throw something like a 91 camaro and try and see it out handle us? fat chance. but an M3 is gonna eat any of us alive. I'm jut saying that the cheaper and better handling cars are FWD.

also, funner is NOT a word

RWD outhandles FWD because you have the option of steering with the rear using the trothle - besically moving close to oversteering without losing grip.

Also a many RWD cars have longitudinally mounted engines, that allow more space for front wheels to turn, reducing the turning radius - again improving handling.

FWD cars naturally understeer, and the best a great FWD chasis can do is mask this natural tendency - (e.g Focus, C1 etc) - You can also steer the rear of a FWD car, but with lifting off the trhottle - AKA - liftoff oversteer - see the Topgear review of Focus ST for illustration.

The biggest problem with FWD is torque steer - there are simply design limitations as to how much torque can be chanelled through front wheels only from a standstill - hence Mazdaspeed3 has an electronic nanny that limits the torque in the first 2 gears.

the biggest 3 issues with rwd are:
PACKAGING - they take up a lot of space in the cabin. Right now there is a single RWD compact made - BMW 1series, which is somewhat of a lop because of lack if interior space.

WIGHT - weight more than FWD reducing Fuel Economy - so in FE minded market that does nto care abough handling, RWD would always seem inferior.

REQUIREMENTS FOR DRIVER SKILLS - understeer is easy to handle - let off the throttle and you will correct yourself - oversteer is much more demanding on dirvers skills - the very reason why RWD is such a great handling setup is the reason why drivers with insufficient skills avoid it.

Igor

^^You make it sound like it's easy to drive FWD. It takes quite a lot of skill to be truly fast with either setup, just different skill sets and strengths.

There are a decent amount of compact RWDs made, but they usually don't come to America, with the fine exception of the Lotus twins.

The primary reason that so many FWDs outhandle RWDS, of the cars on the road right now, comes down to weight. Small and economical sport compacts have a far greater natural tendency to be lighter weight and as a result end up quite a bit more nimble. I would rather have a 2700lb FWD than a 3300lb RWD, even with a pretty decent power defecit. Not to mention that with skill you can drive around the limitations of FWD (inducing rotation), but it's a lot harder to "drive around" a 600 pound weight defecit.

Also, the RWD cars on the road today tend to have large and heavy engines up front. If they don't, then they are typically pretty expensive. Let's list off all the RWD cars available in this country under $20K.

V6 Mustang
V6 300C (maybe)
Miata
Solstice

You have to go near $30K to find other good RWDs, and without exception they are at least 3000+lbs.

Except for the Miata and Lotus Elise, find another RWD in the US that is less than 3000lbs. Most are far more than that.

Originally posted by Carrera26
^^You make it sound like it's easy to drive FWD. It takes quite a lot of skill to be truly fast with either setup, just different skill sets and strengths.

There are a decent amount of compact RWDs made, but they usually don't come to America, with the fine exception of the Lotus twins.

The primary reason that so many FWDs outhandle RWDS, of the cars on the road right now, comes down to weight. Small and economical sport compacts have a far greater natural tendency to be lighter weight and as a result end up quite a bit more nimble. I would rather have a 2700lb FWD than a 3300lb RWD, even with a pretty decent power defecit. Not to mention that with skill you can drive around the limitations of FWD (inducing rotation), but it's a lot harder to "drive around" a 600 pound weight defecit.

Also, the RWD cars on the road today tend to have large and heavy engines up front. If they don't, then they are typically pretty expensive. Let's list off all the RWD cars available in this country under $20K.

V6 Mustang
V6 300C (maybe)
Miata
Solstice

You have to go near $30K to find other good RWDs, and without exception they are at least 3000+lbs.

Except for the Miata and Lotus Elise, find another RWD in the US that is less than 3000lbs. Most are far more than that.

you said everything I wanted to say.
Coming from a v6 mustang, and a '79 280zx, I favor the focus for it's power/weight ratio and in my opinion, the handling is much better on any turn or corner.

The Miata, is one fine handling machine... Very close to 50/50 front/rear weight ratio.

As for the FWD vs RWD: As mentioned before, the RWD has the ability to over-steer with throttle.

In my opinion, unless extensive modification has been done to fix suspension geometry and weight distribution FWD is a understeer monkey.

[watch this rally video to view FWD understeer] (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6894297344002627039&q=rally)

^^^Believe me, even with just having your PSIs the right way, the Focus will oversteer on you all day long. 2 events ago I had my tires setup for our normal courses, but was competing on a very large and very fast course. I was completely sideways at least 3 times, and was fighting to keep from spinning the whole time.

In fact I barely ever have understeer anymore, much less have to fight it. You simply have to carry enough speed into the corners to induce the right amount of rotation. With all the flavors of rotation in your arsenal (lift-off, trail-brake, momentum), a well-driven and good FWD car (like the SVTF) has no understeer problem.

With no modifications, and just a bit of speed, the Focus will oversteer all day long. It's just a matter of how you're driving and how you set it up.