Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
Well I've been a Montana driver for 36 years now and have to disagree about the RWD. I've tried to convince myself and even others like you over the years that a RWD can be fine but it just doesn't work out that way in real life. There is something about the front tires digging their path vs the rear following the path and pushing the front tires through the snow, that makes the fwd better. There is just more stability in pulling the weight, vs pushing it as well. Probably why they tie the dogs up in front of the sleds rather than behind it.
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Different strokes for different folks - I prefer a RWD car in snow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
They won't make the RWD versions of any RWD car rear weight biased because Corvair. So many people will die, it's just not a predictable handling design.
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People misunderstand the issues with the 1st generation Corvair. It didn't go into snap oversteer because it was RWD or because it had a rear weight bias. It went into snap oversteer because it had a poor suspension design. GM was cheap and only put universal joints on the inside of the rear driveshafts so the rear wheels didn't stay flat on the ground when the rear suspension articulated up and down. That caused the rear contact patch to decrease in size and the the rear to lose grip. GM fixed this on the 2nd generation - before "Unsafe At Any Speed" was published. The top is 1st gen the bottom is 2nd gen
Lots of cars have been sold with rear weight bias since Nader's book helped killed off the Corvair. On opposite ends of the spectrum are the VW Beetle and Porsche 911.
Rear weight bias is especially common on performance cars as the idea ratio is between 45/55 and 40/60.
Rear bias doesn't only help during acceleration is also helps braking because hard braking shifts weight forward and helps load the tires more equally than a front biased cars which overload the front tires under braking.
Every RWD electric car I looked at has a rear weight bias:
48% Front / 52% Rear BMW i3 BEV
45% Front / 55% Rear BMW i3 REX
48% Front / 52% Rear Tesla Model S
47% Front / 53% Rear Tesla Model 3
49% Front / 51% Rear Tesla Model X
46% Front / 54% Rear Tesla Model Y
49% Front / 51% Rear Porsche Taycan
VW made the MEB platform standard RWD because it improves vehicle handling dynamics with no cost or packaging penalties.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
why I really came here was to say the first year ID4 sold out in just a few hours so that's a good sign.
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That's cool. How many reservations did they book?