GM, however, still offered the Camaro, Firebird, and Corvette sports cars in RWD, while Ford did the same for its legendary Mustang sports car and other vehicles built on the Panther platform (which was discontinued for a front-wheel-drive layout in 2011). By the 1990s, most American automakers had removed RWD cars from their offerings. Spinning the shaft faster reduces the torque and weight of the vehicle.įront-wheel drive vehicles with the engine in the front overtook RWD in popularity when fuel became more expensive after the 1973 Arab oil embargo and 1979 fuel crisis. Automakers fixed this issue by dividing the transmission into the final drive and the gearbox (usually with 1:1 as the highest gear). This set-up allowed automakers to balance the weight of the transmission under the vehicle by aligning it with the output shaft of the engine.Īccording to How Stuff Works, when the engine is placed over the rear wheels, the vehicle no longer needs a driveshaft but may be too heavy in the back. The first vehicle of this kind was built by Panhard in 1895, so this configuration was sometimes called the Systeme Panhard in that era. Many 19th-century automobiles had a rear-wheel-drive (RWD) configuration with the engine mounted at the front of the car.
Although this was the most common type of driving configuration until the end of the 20th century, today most automobiles are front-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive. The term rear-wheel-drive refers to a powertrain distribution system that places rotational propulsion on the rear wheels only.
0 kommentar(er)
