ha RWD rules that minger VBH says so!

What a load of bullshit!

"Oh look, there's a penguin in the road. I think I'll keep my foot flat to the floor rather than just slowing down"

I think all 3 variations have their place and different cars make different uses out of them. Anyone that says one is best is narrowminded. IMHO anyway.

i think it's down to taste and what car it is your driving. anything small and little engined then FWD works and is a giggle. a FWD car i really like is the BMW Mini, especially the cooper s mental lil motor. not had much experience with saloon 4x4's except for a V6 passat 4motion thingy which was well not bad but i didn't push it.

i prefere RWD now after 2 different MR2's (Mk1 and MK2 turbo) and the BMW i have now. RWD to me feels right.

...all of which were preceded by the one FWD, a cooking Cavalier, were they not?

I don't get all this psuedo RWD snobbery bollocks that seems to be very prevailant in here of late - I like all sorts of cars, some RWD, some FWD and some 4WD.

They main thing they all have to have in common, is they have some form of WD... i.e: they're not fecked, and will still move under their own steam.

which was s**te and FWD oh and vauxhall. poor thing...

i said it depends on the car but given choice i'd go RWD as to me it feels the best.

you must drive some right shit then if that's all you look for in a car :)

Hmm.

It did the job did it not?

Reasonably reliably as well, IIRC.

Define 'feels the best'.

Depends on the circumstances, doesn't it - needs must when you've no pot to piss in can lead to some interesting choices which, under better financial conditions, you'd probably not have considered.

Some of which were actually really good cars, be that because they never gave me any aggro, or they were fun when they really shouldn't have been.

But aye... I've owned and driven some right s**te in the past as well - tends to happen when you've had as many cars as I've had over the years.

Indeed when you're faced with an obstacle the brake pedal is more appropriate than the accelerator in most cases - and that it doesn't matter where your car is driven if you're off the throttle especially with ESP. Without ESP a 4WD car with LSD all round will be more stable.

They do. Getting back used to rear drive is being an experience.

AFAIC it's not a question of snobbery. I prefer RWD and always have done. Overall most RWD cars handle better than FWD ones because they are better balanced as far as weight distrubution over the axles is concerned, and it makes more sense to have one pair of wheels steering, with the other pair simply driving. For road use, I see little point in 4WD. I for one, agree with VBH's assesment. It mirrors my own experiences with the different configurations. Mike..

Who is that Tart kidding? Radio 1, at her age.

LOL. OK, I like that but from experience. Of all the FWD cars I've had the only one I really like the handling of was the FWD Saab 900 hardtop.

After a bit of tweaking I loved the Handling of the 4wd GT4, so much that I didn't notice it until it was gone, and for a 4wd with a front drive bias, I made a good job of mullering the rear tyres, yet I never once drifted or burned it out.

The nicest handling, but not necessarily the best ride was the old Skoda estelle. I changed the shocks and springs to tighten it. Combine that with a low weight alloy engine, all independant suspension, rwd with weight over the back end, and double wishbones up front (which the saab shared as it happens) and no power steering but no steering weight, you kept the power into corners and felt like you were almost steering by thought not action it was that sensitive. And as it was low powered you could use most of that power, through corners. If you back did break away, you gave it more gas, not brakes or liftoff, or you would be facing the wrong way very quickly. It was very raw, basic but so much fun. Even if it rattled, thumped your spine, smelled of mouse pooh and had sunrotted uphostery and a heater that worked when it wanted.

Heh, it's always been like that. You're not a real man unless you own a RWD, even if it's a steaming heap of shit, as long as it's RWD you're OK ;-)

They are all V-reg cars, so assuming they were new at the time, that was filmed in '99-'00, so I reckon she'd only have been 27 or so. Also at that time, Mark&Lard were still on R1, so it was perfectly listenable for at least a couple of hours a day.

I've had a couple!

I've had many of both.

I prefer RWD if I'm in the mood for being a lunatic, 4wd if I'm in a major hurry, and FWD if I'm in a bit of a hurry but too tired to be arsed with oversteer.

RWD does make steering much nicer than it is on anything else, whereas FWD has the slight advantage of being more easily recoverable if you c*ck up in the middle of a corner. 4wd is brilliant but once it lets go you tend to exit the road at silly speeds.

So, to sum up, I love RWD for its purity, steering feel and sheer sideways amusement, FWD for just getting me home at night, and 4wd for going very fast indeed without realising.

I dislike working from FWD cars immensely though. To this day I've never done the clutch on anything FWD apart from the R4 Gordini Turbo. I just don't like FWD to work on.

It's just Tim's little pissing contest to justify being fleeced by a Merc. dealer ;-)

The Mk2 Astra etc. type of clutch design was absolutely brilliant. Simple

15 minute job if you've done one before. Shame they don't make 'em like that any more.

The proper Saab 900 turbo was similar. From above, about 45mins to hour, but it depended if you needed to remove the radiator. Sometimes you could get in without.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net, Elder wittered on forthwith;

I'm particularly happy they don't make Mk2 Astras anymore :-p

I've done the clutch in a Mk2 Escort in less time than that.. did the clutch in a 3.0 Capri (not a 3.0 Capper, whatever that is) in under an hour.

Ditto. I currently have a FWD and RWD car. I love them both, for different reasons. I've only had 1 4WD car, but that certainly proved to be most amusing. Cant say I really prefer any one of them. Totally depends what mood I'm in.

Well said

I did the one on my Mk2 Astra van in a total of 1h30m over two days, having never done one before. And that was 'cos I was in no urgent rush to get it done, and it kept on pissing down with rain, and even (IIRC) included a trip down to the local motor factors to get the clamps that hold the two plates together against the spring pressure (which weren't included in the clutch kit I'd bought for some reason).