RE: fwd and rwd again

[bill leclair <billleclair@domain.elided>]

I do own a front wheel drive Alfa, and that is the one I take to the track, 
however you left something out of your math equation. There is only 100% 
traction available from any wheel. With that in mind, with front wheel 
drive you are using most of your traction on the front wheels for cornering 
and that leaves very little traction available to accelerate out of a 
corner. With rear wheel drive you can use the front tires available 
traction for cornering and the rear wheels for acceleration.
	Although I will admit my 164 is much faster than the spider.

Bill LeClair
Topsfield MA
91 164 L
79 Spider

-----Original Message-----
From:	C M Smith [SMTP:cmsmith@domain.elided]
Sent:	Monday, January 07, 2002 10:23 PM
To:	alfa@domain.elided
Subject:	fwd and rwd again

The fact is the fwd outperforms the rwd until you get to drifting the car.
The geometry of the drive wheels relative to the central axis of the car
means fwd will ALWAYS out corner rwd right up to the point you need to
slide the car to point it down the next straight. This means that for the
street fwd will always be superior to rwd. Anybody who thinks different
just doesn't do the math let alone actually drive back to back fwd against 
rwd.

Awd is problematic because it sometimes acts like fwd and sometimes like
rwd. Generally it will be slower than both because of the weight problem.
However, awd does allow for some very determined driving in bad conditions. 
If you are in snow or on ice or gravel, or wet road, awd is unbeatable. It
requires some special driving techniques (as does fwd) if you are drifting
the car for maximum speed on a circuit of come kind. In the real world
however, even fast drivers do not drift their cars. It just isn't safe to
drive that close to the edge. Drive fwd fast and you'll see the advantages.
Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
91 Alfa 164L, White, original owner

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