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Benefits of Rear Wheel Drive Cars


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The biggest benefit to rear wheel drive is that it spreads the loads of the car across all four tires of a car. In a rear wheel drive car the rear wheels do the pushing while the front wheels are reserved for the steering duties. In front wheel drive cars the front tires must perform both functions. Each front tire in a front wheel drive car must do two tasks. Both the cornering forces and the engine acceleration/deceleration forces in a front drive car act on the same tire.



So in a front drive the tires capacity can be easily exceeded. In a rear drive car the rear tires handle the engine acceleration/deceleration while the front only need to handle the steering forces. Not only does this balance the load on the tires but it reserves the front tires exclusively for the all important steering duties.

Other Benefits to Rear Wheel Drive.

O.K., some assumptions : All comparisons are of equal weight cars without traction control. Braking comparisons assume maximizing the ability (two feet on the pedal pressing as hard as possible) of a perfectly working four channel anti-lock brake system.

So why do automakers use front drive cars?

Well I guess there are a couple of good reasons I can think of. Anybody else have any more? If so e-mail me and let me know.