Re: FWD Beats Similar RWD on the racetrack Worldwide

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The thing is, theory is often one thing, while reality can be something 
else entirely. For instance, we all know the theoretical disadvantages 
of FWD under racing conditions, and they are quite real. When the front 
wheels have to pull the car, steer the car and do the lion's share of 
the braking, there are going to be tradeoffs. On start, for instance, 
the moment of inertia moves back toward the rear of the car 
transferring the weight off of the driving wheels and onto the 
tag-along rear wheels. RWD cars definitely have the edge there. 
Torque-steer limits the amount of power that can be applied to the 
front wheels without some sort of artificial, technological 
compensation. And of course, under race/rally conditions, the combined 
duties of a FWD system use up tires faster than a RWD setup which 
distributes the duties between front and rear. Yet, Paddy Hopkirk's 
original Minis of the early sixties ate the competition alive on the 
rally courses of Europe, even though many of the competing cars look 
much faster and better handling than the Mini on paper. In 2002, the 
FWD Alfa 156 GTAs beat the best fielded by BMW, Volvo, Audi, and Nissan 
in the European Touring Car Championship IN SPITE of these 
aforementioned disadvantages and Oh, one other thing, the Alfas were 
running 4-cylinder engines in these GTAs as well; not the 6-cylinder 
ones that the public can buy in most parts of the world. The 
competition were running 6-cylinder and 5-cylinder units, and the Alfas 
still walked away from them on the straights!

Fact is, If one knows how to drive an FWD car, they can handle and 
perform very well. I have an Alfa GTV-6 with a new 3.0 liter engine 
with 164 's' cams. It has upgraded brakes, yellow Konis all the way 
'round, It's been lowered and shod with new Pirelli P6000s. But  
recently, my newly purchased VW GTI 1.8T daily-driver showed me how far 
cars have come since the Alfa was new. I was able to negotiate one of 
the best two-lane mountain roads in the San Francisco Bay Area (La 
Honda Road, for those who know it) late one night, recently,  from the 
coast to Skyline Blvd, at between 60-70 MPH, never leaving 4th gear and 
without the car once squealing tires or getting out of sorts in any 
way. If I tried that with my GTV-6, one would have been able to hear me 
coming for miles from the protestations of my tires alone. No, I don't 
doubt for a moment that well set-up FWD cars can win races. It looks as 
if the way the drive is configured in a car is not nearly as important 
as the way that drive is engineered, and, of course, the skill of the 
driver.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0S



On Wednesday, April 16, 2003, at 11:33 PM, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 23:20:56 EDT
> From: AlfaNeely@domain.elided
> Subject: FWD Beats Similar RWD on the racetrack Worldwide
>
> In a message dated 4/16/2003 11:04:00 AM Central Daylight Time,
> owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:
>
> > i see FWD cars beat RWD cars all the time. there are well prepped VW
> > rabbits and golfs that can win in SCCA ITB at Lime Rock, against 
> > similarly
> > well prepared Alfas with similarly skilled drivers. the VWs typically 
> > have
> > smaller engines (1.8 vs 2.0L), but also have significantly less weight
> > (by several hundreds of pounds.)
> >
> > all other things are _never_ equal. especially in racing.
> >
> > richard
> > - --
> > Richard Welty
>        OK, Richard.  Any bright ideas on how to make my ITB Alfa 
> Spider beat
> the VW Golf GT's?  The Rabbit problem was cured by seat time on my 
> part.  But
> there are at least three VW Golf GT's in Mid Div and the fastest is 
> two to
> three seconds a lap faster at every track we run.  Of course, the 
> driver has
> won ITB the last 10 years in a row and he runs every race on the 
> schedule,
> which I cannot afford to do and he runs new Hoosiers every race, while 
> I try
> to get my Hoosiers to last three weekends.
>        I know they are all WRONG WHEEL drive, but it seems to work for 
> them.
> Your explaination of why a wheel that is trying to both turn the car 
> and pull
> it forward was quite good.
>
> Ciao,
> Russ Neely
> Oklahoma City
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