I dont know where to post this , I hope Im in the right place. If not, then please kick my ****.

Can someone tell me the notable changes going from a FWD car to a RWD. I was driving my G35c the other day and i felt its a bit different from my 03 maxima.

Its much powerful when I accidentally floored the car when i just wanted to gas it a bit to change lanes. I almost flew off the lane. LOL (a bit dramatic)

Anyhow, any advice is appreciated as always.

 

I think you "felt" more power because you went from a Maxima to a G35.

 

The difference between the two is that you're being pushed with RWD unlike FWD you get the sensation of being pulled. RWD you'll never hear your front tires chirp, there's less weight over your front tires....it's a balance thing.
Gary

 

hmmm thanks gary. my nooby question has been answered.

i knew it was a different sensation.

 

steering might be more smooth with a rwd car, you dont have half shafts and other powertrain parts mixed in with the steering components. you might not notice anything, but i swear i drove a used acura tl one time and, under hard accleration, the steering just didnt feel smooth to me, if that makes any sense...

 

It's called "torque steer" and it's an aspect of all FWD cars, to varying degrees depending on how well it's been engineered. Regardless, a tire only has so much friction available to it, and if you ask it to both propel the car (fore-aft axis) and turn (left-right axis), you are lowering the friction limit for each. It's why most hi-perf cars are RWD. AWD has supplanted RWD in many performance cases due to the advancement of the attendant computer control of the AWD, but traditionally speaking, RWD has offered better performance because you're only asking the rear tires to propel the car and the fronts to steer.

 

IMO, traction is the difference.

Loosing control from a wheelspin with a FWD can easily be adjusted or gain control by turning your steering wheel respectively, slighty controlling the front from whaling out to either side. The rear is more controlled since it's just being dragged and will follow the direction of where the front is going. You might not even noticed wheelspin in the front sometimes since the lost of control is very little.

wheelspin from RWD can make your rear fishtail to the side. Not having the ability to turn your wheels in the rear, you have the adjust the whole car to compensate for the slide...which is basically, "drifting". Wheelspin in the rear is easily noticable.

 

ok, i knew there was some name for it, but i couldnt think of it, thanks. btw, i hate fwd...

 

Ah yes, I think thats what Im looking for. haha. I can definately feel the difference in steering with the G35. Man I just had my car for 4 days and Im falling madly in love with it. VQ3.5 4 L.

 

i have a question about g coupes and rear wheel drive. hope you guys dont mind me asking it here than making a new thread.

so i've always had FWD cars, and where i live i get snow so i was wondering what you guys do when its snowing? do you guys just put snow tires and the car has enough traction to move along or you guys just not drive at all? thanx.

 

I live in Boston, and this winter was ok at best. However i thought about that when I bought the coupe. The answer to my problem is throwing on winter tires on my 07 camry which i use for snowboarding trips.

If you dont have a beater or a Daily Driver, then I suggest winter tires and careful driving. a lot of my friends have RWD IS300s and they survived with no problems.

 

when it snows, i drive my lifted chevy truck

 

Snow tires for sure in the winter works pretty well for < 3-4" of snow, and when it's really nasty out I work from home.

 

maxima = torque steer, severe understeer and front wheels doing the steering/turning

G35 = better balanced handling, superior braking, drive wheels back, steering front.

My bone stock 03 G35 sedan outhandled my 92 maxima on eibachs/Konis and swaybars.

 

OMG.. did everyone from Maxima.org migrate over to G35driver. LOL (I guess Im just new in this forum)