I thought FWD vehicles get better traction then RWD? Pulling seems more feasible to gain traction then pushing

Front wheel drive isn't going to give better traction than rear wheel drive.

I'm sure there are a lot more things to be factored in, but for beginners, ... when you romp on the gas pedal, the car'* weight gets shifted to the rear end... This should give more traction to the rear. On front wheel drive cars, I'm going to assume it takes traction away from the front wheels.

Also, it'* been speculated that many car companies are realizing that front wheel drive setups can't handle the power of todays cars, and therefore are going to making more and more rear wheel drive cars. This was something I saw on tv this past week. It was a Show or special called Automotive Vision, or something to that effect. This was based on concept cars and cars being designed for the future..

In areas like mine, it was speculated that since front wheel drive car give the power to the wheels that steer, we would get better traction in the winter... That was a 30 year let down...lol..

I feel the only advantage to front wheel drive is you get a lower % of power loss through the automatic tranny, than you would with a RWD car.

I forget the exact numbers, but I think RWD vehicles lose about 20-25% of the engines power, and FWD loses something like 17%...maybe less.. These are estimations, since I don't recall the exact numbers.

I also think most FWD cars have a weight balance problem.. The rear end is too light, and the fronts are overloaded with most of the car'* weight.

My caprice 9C1 is very close to a 50/50 weight distribution from front to back.

Lets face it, .. Front wheel drive was a mistake, and the manufacturers are finally realizing that.

Quoted for truth.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on those points.

FWD, with the advantage of traction control, can give the car greater traction. Traction Control (the ability to quickly control the amount of power that goes to the wheels, and take that power away when needed, quickly) is what really determines if a FWD has better control then a RWD.

True, I'm a firm believer that an expert human can out preform a computer (when it comes to driving a car) most drivers are not experts, and that were the value of FWD and TC come into play. ABS for example is a wonderful thing, many normal drivers do not have the skills to do better then ABS can, but an expert driver can.

Anyways, that'* my 2 cents....

So what about RWD with traction control? Cars that are returning to the rear-drive setup are benefitting from it too.


But, anywho, snow + RWD + worn out limited slip gave my mom lots of trouble going up this one hill on the way to work in winter mornings. The car would pivot on one wheel

Let'* face it, RWD is MUCH more fun than FWD.

i want one and also i have a freind who has a 95 Lt1 caprice that runs 13.2 with Mild mods

so there arent slow and a L67 couldnt hang with it only Rogues

That'* pretty quick. Think if he only got rid of some of that extra weight. Those are big heavy cars.

RWD launches better all things considered. Weight distribution is better, and it can be pushed in corners without FWD understeer.