"Fred W" wrote
I'll just ignore this generalization.
Of course. And that's why I wrote "they may be OK for "grandma" type driving," in my initial response.
Cheers,
Pete
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18 years ago
Tire Suggestions?
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18 years ago
Why? I have never driven a FWD car (and I've driven a lot of them) that did not have excessive understeer. Add in a healthy dose of torque steering that inevitably occurs in any of them that that have a decent amount of horsepower and we're talking some really fine cornering...
As in most things in life, tire selection is a huge compromise. Some (perhaps the majority of) drivers prefer to for-go the responsive turn-in of high performance tires for a smoother, quieter ride. That does not mean that they drive like a "grandma", just they do not value that aspect of driving as much.
As for myself, I prefer different types of tires on different cars. For instance, on my Z3 I use the stickiest, Z rated tires I can find. OTOH, on my 325i I like to use a higher-performance tire but in the stock (relatively high) 205/60x15 profile for middle of the road trade-off on handling and comfort and on my 540i (heavy highway cruiser) I prefer a touring class of tire but in a lower than stock profile for the same general trade-off.
BTW - any of those cars (even the 5'er with the "touring" tires) will out corner just about any production FWD car in their respective classes.
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18 years ago
It may be a generalization, but it happens to be true. FWD can be tweaked to give acceptable handling, but never great handling.
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18 years ago
Pete wrote in article ...
Let's see......
On a FWD you have.......
100 percent of your acceleration inputs........100 percent of your deceleration inputs......
100 percent of your steering inputs.......and, 90 percent of your braking inputs.....
....all concentrated on two tire patches totaling around 30 square inches - depending on car weight and tire pressure....
Can YOU say "UNDERSTEER"???????
Ain't no way in Hades that ANY FWD car is going to truly handle well.
With all the front wheel inputs attempting to break the contact patch free from the road surface, the only way racers can come close to "balancing" a FWD car is to make the rear looser.
Nothing can be done to improve the front suspension to the point that the understeer disappears, so you make the rear suspension work not-as-well.