Hi,
I was watching the European rally championship on Eurosport last night. Can't remember where it was (Majorca ?) but it was an all tarmac event. The front wheel drive cars (Megane KC, 306 KC, Xsara KC etc) were going much faster than the four wheel drive cars (WRC Impreza and a Cossy) in the dry. My question is why (or how ?) is this (excluding driver ability) is it a weight penalty thing ?

Thanks for your info;

Cheers

Andy

 

It's the same in the tarmac events in the FIA Championship - although a bit four wheel drive car eventually wins, there are two wheel drive cars littered throughout the top ten.
What you generally find is that these tarmac events are run on tight, twisty roads, where the cars can simply drive round the corners at high speeds. The big four wheel drive cars are at home when they are off road, 'cos they can throw the car into a corner sideeways and then have all four wheels to deliver the power to the loose surface when pointing the right way. On tarmac, all cars are at a much more even level. You have to remember that some of these 2wd cars are still producing very large amounts of power, and are lighter than the 4wd's, and so to an extent have an advantage on the roads. Through a gravelly forest, the lighter weight, slightly less power, and only through 2 wheels, means that they will never be able to stick with the big boys.

Make sense?!

JHall

 

Andy,

the "Maxi" front wheel drive cars can be putting out as much as 280 bhp or more from their 2 litre engines. They also have a minimum weight several hundred kilograms lighter than the WRC cars (whuch are something like 1250 Kg). This gives the front wheels drive cars a distinct power to weight ratio advantage over the WRC cars where they can get sufficient traction (ie dry tarmac). Their lighter weight also helps them considerably through the tiwsty corners as well.

On wet tarmac, or on gravel or mud, then the WRC cars have the upper hand.

 

Thanks for your answers - it's what I suspected but I just wanted to check I'd not missed something. I'm finding I can watch any motor racing (apart from Nascar (yawn)) if I know a bit about what's actually going on.

Thanks

Andy

 

I believe the 2wd cars also get to run on the same size tyres as the 4wd machinery, and that's what the 4wd teams were whinging about when they were getting beaten by the 206's last year. They said 4wd should be allowed fatter tyres!

 

Also the fwd cars have 2 less differentials which implies a lot less friction in the transmission....