NASCAR Front Wheel Drive

[GWguy]

SO.... riddle me this.

One of the biggest issues and cause for crashes is when a car is powering thru a corner and the rear wheels break loose, whether because the driver pushed too hard or he got tapped. End result is too much power in the rear trying to force the front of the car thru a corner. Recipe for a wreck.


In their infinite wisdom to make cup cars safer, why haven't they implemented, or even tested, front wheel drive? Cornering incidents due to rear wheels breaking loose would be reduced to nothing. The rear of the car would just follow and drift thru the corner.


Or am I missing something?

 

[glhs837]

Because accelerating with front wheel drive makes for crappy traction, as the weight shift takes weight off your drive wheels. Also makes for crappy weight distribution, and asking the front end to do steering, suspension, and putting power down means compromising the ability to do all three things. Like a Swiss Army knife, the more functions you add to a device, the more you compromise it's functionality for any singe function.

 

[Gummie]

Thinking back around 74/75 Dorsey Speedway (Dorsey, Md between Ft. Meade and Baltimore), they had a class called "Mini-Stocks". Think VW Bugs, Mazdas, etc. There was one guy who ran a Mini-Cooper, the original. It made the bugs look like large sedans, had front wheel drive. He always qualified first and they did inverted starts. If there was a yellow on the first lap they did a full restart. One night there must have been five restarts. On that 1/4 mile dirt track he would start in the rear and would be leading every time as they came back to the line.