Quote:
Originally Posted by brucey
...Having the front wheels turn, brake, and power while the rear wheels just drag along is very efficient but it just doesn't feel as balanced to me.
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Originally in the 1920s as cars got faster and faster many designers believed that even having the front wheels braked was a bad move for the same reason, i.e the wheels had too much to do - including the originator of my sig quote.
He changed his mind one day after testing a car where the axle had been fitted backwards - so it went quickly in reverse instead of forwards. He braked hard of course and realised the brakes were more effective that way.
A good handling FWD car shouldn't have the rear wheels just dragging, but quite a few do unfortunately - the dead beam style axle on a Paseo compared to it's contemporary competitor the Civic Coupe having a wishbone setup.
George has a "dragging around" design which in normal driving doesn't seem bad at all - some people who have pushed it harder than I do have said that a bug can get less predictable - there is a potential project in an owner's club to come up with a tuned suspension setup for bugs (107/C1/Aygo).