My first car (a Renault Gordini) was RWD and had the engine where the trunk of modern cars are. From an engineering standpoint, this is the simplest configuration. Is there a reason for it being abandoned? (I know that Ferrari, etc still use it).
Can't tell you if it costs less to produce or not - I've heard stories both ways. The configuration is much more forgiving when it comes to slides and provides better traction in sloppy conditions. The lack of a transmission allows all of that stuff we love to be crammed into the same space.
There are some rwd cars still available, but not as many as before. I learned to drive when a few exotic cars like the Saab, DKW, Citroen had front wheel drive and all others had rear drive. Now the opposite is true and to be honest I don't miss rwd any more than I miss unassisted brakes and steering and non-airconditioned cars.
Probably becasue they oversteer like mad and are deathtraps. I don't hink any could pass today's crash protection standards.
Don't confuse rear engined (Porsche air cooled, Volkswagon air cooled) with mid-engined (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Fiero) cars. Rear engine cars have a history of being dangerous to unskilled/low skilled drivers unless performance is very low. Mid-engined cars are considered inherently best as a starting point for performance. Though at first glance it seems like the mid-engine is best for simplicity, consider that with liquid-cooled cars there is a lot of tubing/piping required to get engine coolant to the front radiator, and there are the issues with throttle and shift control linkage length and complexity. Since driver controls are at the front of the passenger compartment it makes sense from a packaging standpoint to put the motor up front as well, that way the only drivetrain related components behind the front firewall are the exhaust and fuel systems.
JazzMan
I don't see rear engine RWD as being any simpler than front engine FWD except that the driven wheels don't steer with RWD. As JazzMan said, cooling is far more complicated with the engine at the rear.
My guess is a combination of:
marketing -> FWD was the "in" thing for the longest time. cost -> if all your other cars are front engined, you save on engineering & manufacturing costs by keeping the engines in front. (examples: the Fiero used an X car front subframe in the back to save costs. The new GM FWD V8 cars need a different accessory drive than the RWD versions.)
I suspect it's mostly marketing. People expect the engine in front and trunk in back, unless they're looking for a mid-engine sporty car. Technically superior doesn't mean much in the real world.
That said, the weight balance of a rear engined (not mid-engine) car isn't that great. Think of a pendulum - with all the weight in the ass-end, once it starts coming around... it's going around. And yes, this is an overly simplistic view of it because every style of drivetrain has advantages/disadvantages. A FWD car can be made "loose" and a mid engine car can suffer from understeer - it's more than just where the engine is and which end is driving.
Ray
How 'bout Porsche....
A rear engined car tends to oversteer. Oversteering is more dangerous than understeering unless the driver is VERY proficient. Ralph Nadar did in oversteering cars with his attacks on VWs and Corvairs. Liability won't let mfgs sell oversteering cars to general public now.
The oversteer was due to generally rearward weight bias of rear engined cars. It is quite difficult to engineer out the oversteer with such a weight bias.
Oversteer wasn't the only reason nadar had it in for the corvair. The corvair also had swing axles and nasty tendancy to flip over when cornered too hard.
I didn't know nadar also had it in for the VW.
Understeer means you slide into the ditch face first. Oversteer means you slide into the ditch backwards. AWD means you slide into the ditch on your roof.
4wd means you get stuck in the ditch so far you have to wait until spring.Understeer is only "safe" because when people do the natural reaction to a slide (get off the gas) a car that understeers will begin to regain steering control. For those of us with lead feet, oversteer is the way to go. :)
Ray (I coulda been a drifting champion...)
A guy on a BMW forum has this sig:
Oversteer is when the passengers are scared! Understeer is when the driver is scared!
:)
As I understand it, jacking adds more oversteer because the added weight transfer to the outer wheel results less total grip at the back.
If you like trying to steer while backing up, that is, positive reinforcements of your steering inputs, you'll love oversteer.
No one has mentioned susceptibility to sidewinds as a rear engine disadvantage.
And Porsche has more or less engineered the problem away, but at great expense.
The type of swing rear axle used on both the Corvair and VW bug contributed to their oversteer. He took on VW before he went after the Corvair. The Super Beetle used a low pivot rear axle to reduce the handling problems.
I guess I oversimplified when saying the oversteer problems of the VW and Corvair were due to rear weight bias. It was also due to their somewhat primitive suspensions also, which kind of exaggerated the problem.
Understeer is stable, though. That is, the problem is that you are trying to drive around a corner at a radius at which the lateral cornering power of the car is less than the centrifugal acceleration at that speed and radius. With an understeering car, the car will only plow till the turn radius increases to a point where the cornering power is equal to the CF. It will then be okay. This is true even if driver takes no corrective action.
With an oversteering car, one MUST initiate corrective action to the problem. It will NOT recover by itself. Oversteering seeks an even tighter radius, where CF is even higher than available cornering force.
The sidewind problem in the bug was enhanced because the aerodynamic design of the bug had a very forward center of pressure, well ahead of the CG. If the design had more lateral area in the rear, as with FINS, it would have helped greatly.
Again I'll plug for Autozine Technical School
Not only that, but susceptibility to crosswinds is very much a function the ratio of side area to weight. A tall featherweight vehicle will always suffer from side winds.
I'm just going by memory here, but I think VW deleted the swing axle and changed the Bug to CV joint/shafts a few years before the Super Beetle even came out. The later Super Beetles had a different front suspension (Macpherson struts instead of the frame thing) as well as the CVs.
That sounds about right. IIRC, swing axles went out around '68; the superbug was introduced around '71.
Yes since the weight distribution is in all the wrong places for a road car, behind the driver. RWD was invented for drag racing, not driving.
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