Nice thread, nice debate. Keep it going because there are some very valid points being made on both sides of the fence.
Me? You all know that I'm the great fence sitter: you makes your choice and you takes your pick. And then, live with it.
In high-end performance cars, RWD is the de facto standard for maximum driver involvement and adjustability. A front wheel drive M3 would be absolute rubbish and that's why there isn't one.
But, at the same time, a RWD Mini or Clio Sport would be daft and pointless and certainly less fun to drive. It's all about technique. Technique for having fun in FWD/AWD car is decidedly different from the technique required for the same in a RWD car. If you're a good driver you can have fun in both - using the throttle to balance the car's cornering stance. In a RWD car you'll put your foot down on the accelerator to get the back out, in an F/AWD car you'll lift off mid-corner for oversteer and then mash the gas to pull you out of the slide - something, it must be said, you can't do in a RWD car - which is equally fun.
The key thing here is the relationship between the amount of engine power vs. the amount of traction. An A4 2.0T is dynamically a more fun car to drive than a 320i because it has more power and the driver is able to exploit that power to his/her own enjoyment. Because the car has more power - it's more adjustable on the limit.
There's so much more to a good chassis than merely where the drive wheels are located and whilst I've acknowledged RWD as the best solution for performance motoring it's not to say that RWD is mandatory for good fun. Nope. But driver skill is.
There are many fabulous front-drivers out there and plenty of truly awful ones too. Then again, I know of a couple of RWD cars that are as dull as dishwater too...
Eventually, it all comes to nought. Us petrolheads can sit here all year round and extol the virtues of whichever layout, only to realise that to 90% of our family, friends and colleagues: it doesn't matter. Most of them could care less. For the rest that do pretend that it matters do so based on what they've been told and not what they understand.
Sorry gang, but us folks here in GCF-land are in a minority - most of the car-buying public don't care (most of them don't even know) about front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.
What the general public does understand (and desire) is a car that accelerates powerfully in a straight line and corners securely around bends. The notions of understeer and oversteer never even come to mind.
And that's why a car like the Audi B7 has made such astonishing inroads into BMW 3er territory (the B8 should do even more so), because for the majority of prestige car buyers out there, the driven wheels are only a tiny consideration in the overall purchasing decision.
Hey, you know what else is rather interesting: the vast majority of car buyers will have grown up and learnt to drive on front wheel drive cars. Look at me, I've never owned a RWD car - and I've owned ten cars already! How many normal motorists out there will, when encountered with the situation, disengage the stability program and put foot down, knowing exactly what to do with the car once the combination of accelerative and lateral forces exceed the frictional co-efficient of the tyres (most of them right now are going "what the frak did you just say, Martin?") pitching the car into controlled oversteer? It's a statistic I'd love to know.
If they did then more than likely they're a member of a car forum somewhere out there on the internet.
