FWD or RWD?

Author
Discussion

cerb4.5lee

30,570 posts

180 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
FWD is for girls.
RWD seems to be also for girls nowadays though, with all the electronic aids they have for traction etc.


LordHaveMurci

12,042 posts

169 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
FWD is for girls.
I have one of each, what does that make me?

ging84

8,897 posts

146 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
I'm not sure there is a divide on drive layout or fuel type

I think it's fairly universally accepted that rwd is better than fwd, and that petrol is better than diesel

There are a few outliers out there who honestly prefer the 'wrong' one, and ones who act like would rather die than drive one, but most people given free choice with out having factor in anything like cost would have the same preferences.

aka_kerrly

12,418 posts

210 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
FWD is for girls.
banghead
Utter nonsense

Loyly said:
The driven wheels are less important than the quality of the drive overall, for me. I'll take a Megane RS over a 318i any day!
Exactly that.

TameRacingDriver

18,086 posts

272 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
LordHaveMurci said:
I have one of each, what does that make me?
A hermaphrodite?

Rawwr

22,722 posts

234 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
How good a car feels to drive is bugger all to do with which of its wheels are driven.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

190 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
I like all the layouts. But for different purposes and uses.

Fwd is however the most annoying of the three. Or maybe frustrating is a better word.

AWD/4wd is arguably the best and most fun. But can feel a little safe on dry tarmac. Rwd probably the most lairy.... especially on public roads where you really can't exploit AWD.

But the rwd you can't do things like this either biggrin


Ahbefive

11,657 posts

172 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
quotequote all
LordHaveMurci said:
Monkeylegend said:
FWD is for girls.
I have one of each, what does that make me?
Ladyboy surely?

sebhaque

6,404 posts

181 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
All 4 of my cars are RWD. I have nothing against FWD (I actually quite like AWD) but RWD seems to be the flavour of choice for fun cars. I'm not going to poo-poo a C63 or MX-5 in favour of a FWD variant.

lee_erm

1,091 posts

193 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
For B road blasting I prefer an exploitable FWD car, think Clio 172. For track driving I prefer a RWD car. If I had the skills of Chris Harris that opinion may well be different.

Mr Tidy

22,313 posts

127 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
Loyly said:
The driven wheels are less important than the quality of the drive overall, for me. I'll take a Megane RS over a 318i any day!
Maybe, but I'd take a BMW 130i/135i/140i over any Megane!

Pebbles167

3,442 posts

152 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
I feel more comfortable flying round a track in a FWD car, constantly worried the back will step out on something RWD. I enjoy driving pretty much as fast as i can, not just quickily, so a slide would likely mean a crash. Anything which will lower the chance of that happening the better.

If i had time to develop the skill to properly drive a powerful RWD car, I'm sure I'd prefer that. But for now, it's hard to beat a hot hatch.

Debaser

5,843 posts

261 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
RWD for me.

I don't agree with FWD feeling more comfortable on track either. I suggest the more predictable nature of a better balanced RWD car is a lot more confidence inspiring.

Tickle

4,918 posts

204 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
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Hungrymc said:
The right answer has already been posted. A well executed version of any is far better than a poor attempt at the others.
This seems to sum it well for me. I am yet to drive a well set up haldex drive train, but maybe thats not for this thread.

Ninja59

3,691 posts

112 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
It depends I have driven FWD, RWD and some AWD (not 4WD).

Honestly for me personally I prefer RWD based on my experiences, most of the halfway house AWD cars (not proper "4WD") for example using haldex and variants there of I have walked away from saying absolutely "crap", purely because for most of the time they are simply FWD in a majority for most of their life being bastardised in the sake of marketing to be "safer" and in the UK probably on Summer tyres so when it snows their "4WD" should get them everywhere and most of the time delivers no difference at all), very few start with a RWD bias.

So why RWD for both of mine - to be honest I like the "feeling" that you get from RWD platform, yes I am a lot slower in some conditions than a FWD could be, but equally it means that when the conditions are less than ideal I tend to drive more slowly and give a greater allowance for the prevailing conditions (as well as actually fitting the correct tyre!)

To note one of mine has only ABS, so I know what it feels like to be pretty much alone, the other one has just about every electric item to bring everything back in to line.


FN2TypeR

7,091 posts

93 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
Loyly said:
The driven wheels are less important than the quality of the drive overall, for me. I'll take a Megane RS over a 318i any day!
100% this, without a doubt in my mind yes

Big GT

1,811 posts

92 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
In the Uk we have rain, sun, snow mud, dips, adverse cambers, pot holes, bends and peugeot drivers you name it at same time
For this
4WD = best
RWD = Fun
FWD = practical


kambites

67,556 posts

221 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
If your pot holes are big enough to need 4wd to get out of them, they're a fair bit bigger than the ones we have around here. hehe

Monty Python

4,812 posts

197 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
The question is too general - there are good and bad cars in both categories so making a blanket judgement is virtually impossible.

DoubleD

22,154 posts

108 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
quotequote all
Mr Tidy said:
Loyly said:
The driven wheels are less important than the quality of the drive overall, for me. I'll take a Megane RS over a 318i any day!
Maybe, but I'd take a BMW 130i/135i/140i over any Megane!
And miss out on a more entertaining car? Each to their own I guess.