3 Responses to “FWD/AWD driving techniques -> At Speed??”

1. admin says:

   November 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm

   In article <1993Sep9.175201.13…@bnr.ca>,
   

   Richard Lum <Richard.Lum…@bnr.ca> wrote:
   >use on anything with any amount of steering angle cranked in usually
   >leads to tires breaking loose.

   Can’t really comment on the FWD.  Guess I just haven’t driven a really
   good handling FWD car yet.  :)  Though my friends Acura Integra seems
   to handle fairly well, I didn’t really drive that as hard or long as
   I need to really get a feel for it.

   >I have never driven a AWD sports car in a sporting manner and wonder
   >what techniques are useful and wether you have any throttle,brake
   >control of steering.

   You should still be able to use throttle and braking to adjust your line
   through the corner.  Even though the throttle (and braking much of the
   time) is more distributed through all the wheels, you get the weight
   transfer to front or back which will help increase the slip angle on
   the tires and allow you to modify your line.

   For an extreme example, in the winter in my Subaru I like to take it out
   into a parking lot at the beginning of the snow season and get the handling
   feel back…  The only way I can get it to break the rear wheels loose is
   to get up some speed, go into a turn, then hit the brakes.  This’ll usually
   break the rear end free.

   Throwing more power down while in the turn just tends to widen the arc
   of the turn unless I REALLY stomp on it, then the car understeers
   severely (front end plow from weight transfer).

   Don’t know on dry since it’s a part time 4WD, but logic says it should
   be similar.

   Sean
   —
   "Most American cars are like heavy metal music.  Lots of noise and vibration,
   but not much performance."  – A friend after spending the day car shopping.
   Sean Reifschneider, Supreme hack  <j…@accum.com>
   I got gasoline from 7-11 and my car stopped running.  New gas, ran fine.
2. admin says:

   November 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm

   In article <1993Sep9.175201.13…@bnr.ca>, l…@bnr.ca (Richard Lum) writes:
   > However, as time went on and a lot of excellent handling FWD cars
   > are around, I find myself pondering the adjustments to driving
   > styles at speed.  To date, I have found that on FWD, the best method
   > seems to be very hard braking and very early apex.  The hard braking

   My FWD exploits under sporting conditions is rather limited. Swinging
   the tail seems easier than most RWDs (the 911 being the ultimate
   tail swinger!), but digging out of a deep corner hasn’t been as
   brisk. As I say, my experience here is too limited to be defiinitive.

   > I have never driven a AWD sports car in a sporting manner and wonder
   > what techniques are useful and wether you have any throttle,brake
   > control of steering.

   On the track, I don’t know – I’m still RWD there. On the rallye course,
   most of the RWD techniques transfer directly, except the ones that depend
   on breaking wheels loose. The weight transfers are still there and have
   the same effects. On pavement, you have to hang it closer to the
   edge before throttle steering is effective – back from the edge its just
   like going around on rails (with good suspension, of course). Means you
   go around faster – just check what Haywood did on the track with the Quattro
   a couple years back. On the unpaved, the difficulty of going into a 4 wheel
   drift depends on the surface, but is always well worth it for what it does
   for your times. Technique is just to break it loose, point it in the
   direction it should be facing at the exit and tromp it at the right time.
   The top cars in both the WRC and US ProRallye series are all AWD.

   Bob Benson
3. admin says:

   November 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm

   - Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

   l…@bnr.ca (Richard Lum) writes:
   >I use to be a proponent of the thought that RWD was the only way
   >to go as far as sport driving goes.  I just couldn’t see how it
   >would be any fun to drive without using the throttle for steering.
   >However, as time went on and a lot of excellent handling FWD cars
   >are around, I find myself pondering the adjustments to driving
   >styles at speed.  To date, I have found that on FWD, the best method
   >seems to be very hard braking and very early apex.  The hard braking
   >allowing the proper placement of the tail for early exit.   It also
   >seems that this method is well suited to FWD as any hard throttle
   >use on anything with any amount of steering angle cranked in usually
   >leads to tires breaking loose.
   >I have never driven a AWD sports car in a sporting manner and wonder
   >what techniques are useful and wether you have any throttle,brake
   >control of steering.
   >Any thoughts, comments ???
   >–

           I just came back from the 2nd day of Rally Australia here in
   Perth and was just awestruck by the driving of the top competitors. 2
   litre turbo AWD on a 2 1/3 km track on the foreshore of the city was
   just awesome. The top cars seemed just to drift in every direction
   except the one it was pointing in. They would be in a 4-wheel drift at
   ~60+ degrees to the direction of motion and plumes of dirt and rock spit
   back for 50 metres or so. They have full control of the car (most times)
   using wheel and throttle even with AWD.
   

           There were no rear wheel drive cars in the 84 cars entered, the
   main types of cars were Lancers, Charades and Swifts (the latter two
   being FWD). Even the Charades were being turned sideways around corners
   by some of the drivers.

           The advantage of AWD was very apparent in the 3 city stages
   where 2 cars are startred on the same track at the same time side by
   side. The AWD cars would blast out of the corners with jets of dirt
   spraying back from all four wheels while the FWD cars would be much
   slower out of the corner. Also, most of the FWD cars would plowinto the
   corner with alot of understeer although some of the drivers occasionally
   executed some classic "sideways around the bend" manoeuvres.

           Unfortunately, the co-driver for Possum Bourne, Dr Roger Freeth,
   died yesterday when the Suburu Legacy they were driving hit a tree
   during a stage.

                                   Daniel Oi
                                   University of Western Australia

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