Forward wheel driven cars vs. Rear WD: breaking and steering

RWD cars usually handle better on dry roads, but FWD cars are safer in wet conditions when slippage is a risk factor. Generally speaking, FWD cars are not superior by design relative to RWD cars, but they are often preferred because driving a RWD car is somewhat counterintuitive. For example, when you make a sharp turn while driving a FWD car and it happens to start to skid, your natural instinct is to apply breaks to slow down in an effort to improve traction and regain control. That’s fine with FWD cars and most likely will work, but will cause further problems for RWD drivers. 

When a RWD car starts to skid, the rule is, never apply breaks. If you do, things will only get worse. You can do either of the following two things in a slipping RWD car: either let up on the accelerator (a natural reaction) and let the engine break develop, or you can push on the gas pedal (for experienced drivers); the latter helps regain traction in RWD cars. But there is more! Steering wheel control is completely counterintuitive in RWD cars. RWD cars are characterized by what is called an “oversteer” meaning that should you find yourself slipping into a given direction, to correct the situation you should start steering the wheel in the direction of slippage furthermore; not in the opposite direction – as a compensating factor, you might think. Whereas, in FWD cars (characterized by “understeer,” meaning not enough steering in the direction you want to go) you do counter-steer, that is, you steer in the opposite direction of the developing slippage — your natural reaction, and it is the right thing to follow in the FWD cars. Hence, understeer is more intuitive to control. For RWD car drivers, it is advisable to practice “oversteer” in empty spaces where there is no risk of an imminent collision. Once mastered, the oversteer is easy to control.

RWD cars are superior by design and drive well in experienced drivers’ hands. All BMWs are RWDs! For one thing, breaking in FWD cars is not as good as in RWD cars because of the poor weight distribution (the weight is disproportionately shifted to the front part of the car in FWD cars, hence poor balance). Also FWD cars suffer from what is called a torque steer, meaning when you get your car moving from a still position, at the beginning, if you happen to step on the accelerator a little bit too much, you will feel your car getting slightly disoriented, moving to one side instead of going forward; that’s something given by the design of FWD cars that we can take for granted (again having to do with the weight redistribution and the V-shaped transversal placement of an engine in FWD cars). So initial gentle acceleration is advised in FWD cars. RWD cars, on the other hand, handle well fast acceleration from a stand still. Modern cars do have skid control and traction control systems but they do not fully alleviate slippage problems. FWD should use good tires as they wear off more quickly in FWD cars. 

Air bags

Airbags make most sense when seat belts are in use. When air bags inflate forcefully they pose a certain danger to adult passengers within the immediate area of deployment (several inches) and the seat belt helps keep a passenger at bay—in addition to providing an extra precaution against ejection from a moving car in an accident, which is quite common in major crashes. Underage children should never be placed on laps and babies’ cradles should be placed as far behind on the chair as possible to mitigate the risks of a rapid air bag inflation should an accident occur, God forbid.

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