What is the difference between front wheel drive and rear wheel drive in cars?

Answer 1

First of im not sure how detailed you want this answer to be but ill give you a breif overview :

FWD- basically the engine sends power to the front two wheels.

This results is UNDERSTEER meaning when you try to turn left and you take the corner too fast, you will end up turning wide. Feels like ure not turning at all, feels like ure going striaght even though the wheels are turned left. Why? because the front wheels lose friction/grip and so the the tire cannot grip the road and turn the front of the car left. So the back of the car goes straight since it has grip which pushes the front of the car which has no grip forward instead of into the left corner.

FWD cars are safer due to understeer because if u turn left and the car doesnt turn, all u have to do is slow down brake and the front wheel will start to regain grip and start to turn again. Which is why for example the toyoto corolla is FWD and understeers.

Also FWD are cheaper and more spacious cause you mount the engine on the front wheel compared to a RWD where u have engine front and have components running to the back two wheels, meaning more maintenance and harder to build.

RWD- The engine sends power to the rear two wheels pushing the car.

Hence the car OVERSTEERS, meaning when u turn left and go into the corner too fast the car will turn too much. This causes the car to spin, because ure rear wheels lose grip but the front wheels are turned the the left which have grip causing the back of the car which lost grip to move forward while the front of the car go left because its turning and has grip. This will lead to a spin towards the left and spin outta control where the back of the car comes out.

RWD is more dangerous and also alot of fun because if u oversteer meaning u turn left and the back of the car comes out and the car starts to spin an average driver will not be able to regain control. BUT if your an experienced driver when you turn left and the car starts to spin you can counter steer (as the back comes out instead of turning left start turning right) and drift around the corner so to speak which is why experienced drivers prefer RWD because its alot of fun! Which is why a corvette is RWD because u can drift and power slide, but if u are inexperienced u can also get yourself in a serous accident.

For racing RWD is used cause you can have 50/50 weight dsitribution balancing the car instead of having the car front heavy as in a FWD. In a sports car u want a balanced car so that all the wheels have equal weight on them and a RWD drive can acheive that better than a fwd car.

4WD/AWD-The engine can send power to all four wheels. So if you have a skyline GTR R33 for instance which has AWD, primarily power is sent to the rear wheels, but if the car starts to over steer the ATTESA-ETS will send power to the front wheels to counter the oversteer and induce understeer, which is why the Skyline GTR series is so famous. Making AWD cars to have wat people say neutral steering.

(Remind you, understeer, oversteer and neutral also depend on suspension design, weight distribution etc. So we cannot say all FWD cars must understeer or all RWD car must oversteer. In fact, car makers usually design the suspension geometry to compensate for oversteer or understeer generated by FWD / RWD and weight distribution. But in general FWD cars understeer and RWD cars oversteer)