which is better for performance / handling: rear-wheel drive or front-wheel drive?

Answer 1

There are some pretty good handling front wheel drive cars - the Dodge Neon ACR and Honda CRX come to mind. However, front wheel drive and lots of power do not mix very well - you often have traction problems off the line, there's issues like torque steer that may crop up, etc. And giving a typical front wheel drive car too much gas out of a fast turn can make the car behave like it has no steering input.

Rear wheel drive cars often have better weight distribution, more traction off the line, and fewer of the issues that can come up when the front tires try both steering and pulling the car.

Answer 2

For performance, rear-wheel drive is the better choice. On front wheel drive cars, the front tires have to do both acceleration and cornering. The tires can't perform both those tasks as once very well. On rear wheel drive cars, the front tires handle cornerning, while the back wheels control the acceleration. The tires can perform much better when they only have to perform in one way.

Compare the cornering of a front wheel drive car vs. a rear wheel drive car if you ever get a chance. You'll notice real quickly that the front wheel drive car will plow a lot more into corners (understeer), especially if you try to give the car some throttle in the turn, so you'll have to go slower in the turn. In rear wheel drive cars you won't notice the understeer. In fact, when you give a rear wheel drive car throttle in a corner, it may oversteer a little, which means you can go through the corner faster.

Also, with straight-line acceleration, a rear wheel drive car will be faster, since the weight will transfer to the back of the car under acceleration, causing more traction on the back wheels, and less on the front.

Answer 3

Front wheel drive, try and drive and steer through some snow or mud to test that theory =)

Rear wheel drive is more fun though if you like slides.

Answer 4

real wheel drive is better from wheel drive isn't as good as people thinks because as you accelerate weight shifts from the front to back and the front wheels loos traction
all wheel drive is the ideal

Answer 5

4WD is better. But if you want an answer between these two, OF COURSE rear wheel drive.

Answer 6

it depends. you can get good handling from both, just like you can get bad handling from both. depends on the car. my festiva was front wheel drive-bad handling, my crown vic wagon was rear wheel drive-also bad handling.