Front Wheel Drive , Versus Rear wheel drive, for small vehicles?.

Axle,
Over many years driving my very, very fast 2 door Hyundai excel sportz Ha. Ha.

This is what i have experienced. Although the little vehicle is mostly only driven on the highway I have found in heavy rain with water on the road the front wheels break traction and spin even at 100 kph. You can feel the thump through the transmission as the wheels regain traction.

It is a little disconcerting when it happens in a bend and all I do is lock my arms and back off a little until traction is regained.

I have never had any problems otherwise, except when overtaking and waiting for the turbo to kick in. Damn!!!! then I remember it hasn't got a turbo.

RA.

Axle,

I drive an Aurion (front wheel drive) for work on all road surfaces (some which shouldn't be driven on in such a low clearance vehicle) and I find that the front wheel drive once one is used to driving it, is very good on all road surfaces.
Loose gravel is where it beats a rear wheel drive as the front end drive to where you point it and the back end just gets pulled back into line.
I found that if the back end starts to lose shape then keep the right foot planted till it straightens and then gently back off.

Cheers Kev

Hi Axle, wifes current car is front wheel drive and as above it will wheel spin and carry on pulling up Mooney Mooney etc if its decent rain also Hawksbury if you keep the boot into and try to maintain 110k, you can see the tacho jumping around and this is with new good quality tyres. As far as cornering the only time Ive had issues is going into a sharp corner too quick and tapping the brakes which causes the rear of the car to step out especially under heavy braking. Other then that I enjoy the front wheel drive, pulls well out of corners and at least you get some feed back through the steering as to wether your gassing it to much or not. But yes extremely light in the rear end i think would contribute to the issue, but like any of these incedents I put it down to driver error, going in too hard, braking hard mid corner, wet roads, inexperience. My old man always told me, brake before the corner and accelerate out of it. Nearly put the bike on its side due to braking mid corner scared the crappers out of me, never did it again, I always remember what the old man said...........

I wouldn't say the rear of a front wheel drive breaks out quicker than a rear wheel drive car. I'm guessing what you're watching is lift off oversteer which is an issue in both front and all wheel drives. Once committed to a corner in a front driver in low traction conditions it is suicidal to back off half way through. Most wrx's you see wrapped around phone poles have done the same.

As a matter of interest and if you have the inclination and a large 4wd like a Landcruiser or Patrol remove the rear tailshaft and take it for a drive in H4, the front drive foibles are amplified to an extent that it is scary, torque steer is lane changing stuff and braking can be frightening.
I always remember driving a 47 troopy back to Sydney from Albury after a trip when the rear pinion bearing went. Removed the rear axles and rear tailshaft and came home in H4 in the rain with the campertrailer on the back. Every gearchange resulted in a huge step sideways, braking was dangerous on an uneven surface and accelerator application needed to be very careful even with the puny output of the old 2H diesel.
As the others have posted front wheel drive cars can be touchy on slick surfaces and backing off mid corner can be an undie changing exercise.
Anyone ever driven one of those early Starion turbo's?

I would say that front wheel drive vs rear wheel drive just take different driving methods, especially when you're bordering on losing control (on gravel etc).

The fourby's we've had are rear wheel drive, the small car (old Lancer) is front wheel drive. It's just different how the lancer pulls through corners (have about 3km of gravel to our house) whereas in a rear wheel car that has a light rear end I think you'd be prone to start wanting to drift earlier.
But in having said that perhaps a drift is easier to control in a rwd car compared to fwd????
From my personal experiencel it's not comparing apples with apples, the old Hilux was very drifty on gravel corners compared to the small fwd drive cars, but it was easy to tell when it was wanting to drift and then back off. In a front wheel drive I'd tend to think once the back end starts to drift it would be harder to correct?

I'm thinking that if you combine modern tech (like traction control) and front wheel drive, you can go faster around corners so maybe when people do lose control it's a point where it's harder to recover even if they do know how?

G'Day Axle,
It's all a matter of lack of driving skills & people not knowing how to get a good feel for the cars handling characteristics!

In my early years I had a Mini Cooper which was front wheel drive & I could do some very finely controlled slides without coming to grief. I won't tell you how quick I could get over the Black Spur mountain range here in Vic.

I think that drivers should be made to do an advanced driving skills at a young age as I did. It has helped me avoid many incidents over the years.

Cheers
Stu

My understanding is that front wheel drive is actually better in poor grip cornering. The tail can drift out easier, but the front wheels keep the car steering and moving around the bend.

Meanwhile, a rear wheel drive loosing grip, also loses traction on the drive wheels and therefore has less control.

Just 'what I'd heard', but really it's all about the driver driving to the conditions and experience isn't it?