Rear Wheel Drive Cars

There are many benefits of rear wheel drive (RWD) cars and the number of people who prefer these vehicles is constantly rising...

Most of the automobiles that are prevalent in the market today are manufactured with front wheel drives (FWD). This is a trend that has risen towards the end of the 20th century, as most cars of the 20th century were manufactured with rear wheel drives (RWD). There are plenty of reasons for this paradigm shift from FWD to RWD, but in the last couple of years, it is a fact that car manufacturers are increasingly shifting towards manufacturing such cars once again. The primary difference between FWD and RWD is the set of wheels that the engine controls. In RWD cars the engine is placed at the front end of the car, and the set of wheels that are powered by the engine are the rear wheels. This layout is commonly referred to as the front-engine rear-wheel drive layout, or the FR layout. Any motorcycle that you see on the road follows this layout, as it is the rear wheels that are powered by the engine. Emergence of FWD Cars There are plenty of reasons why RWD cars were replaced by front wheel drive cars, and the primary reason was that of car safety. Car manufacturers and drivers began to realize that the driving experience could be much safer if the car was fitted with a front wheel drive. The majority of the weight of the car is on the front wheels in the front wheel drive, and as a result of this the car tends to go straight, similar to an arrowhead that places the head at the front tip of the shaft. It still holds true that if a car skids or goes out of control, a front wheel drive enables the driver to regain control of the car easier and faster, thus avoiding car crashes. If a person does not know how to drive such vehicles properly, there's a high chance that he will be unable to regain control of the car if it slides, as at least half of the weight is on the rear side resulting in the car rotating. Despite these obvious safety concerns, most luxury cars, and even racing cars for that matter, are endowed with rear wheel drives. The explanation for this is that since the weight of the car is almost equally distributed between the front and the back, there is greater balance while the car is in motion. This makes the car easier to handle, and lends a dynamism to its movement that cannot be experienced with front wheel drive cars. If the car needs to be stopped suddenly, they are far more superior to FWD cars as well. Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/rear-wheel-drive-cars.html