I think that rwd grip is a joke. Tyres lit up at almost every time, but twice the power in awd makes 0-100kph in 0.7 sec. Awd is too cheap in pi points imo
Did a Rivals with others recently and the quickest ones on that particular track were the RWD builds.
Horses for courses as they say. Certain tracks suit AWD and others suit RWD but in general, yes, the AWD has the edge over the RWD in most (not all) aspects of the game.
Question though - should all stock AWD cars have higher PI (wouldn’t this then be handicapping certain cars because of this).
Not a fan of RWD but will drive it if i have too and can do alright in them as well but not as good as some.
It depends on the car tier.
for A800, I have FWD, AWD cars…
I did a similar thread months ago where I was btching about AWD being too OP.
To be honest, it depends on track. I prefer AWD for Dirt and tarmac tracks where you have a lot of corners.
RWD are really nice for S2 cars and most of S1 Cars. Don’t forget that tunes are also really important. You can reduce the under/oversteer, change the gearbox ratio etc. It HAS impact on how you handle the car.
AWD = good acceleration and grip but lack of topspeed
RWD = escellent topspeed and good grip (depends on the car for the grip), acceleration is slower than AWD in the first gears.
FWD = excellent grip but lack of topspeed and acceleration is very slow.
Its how I see drivetrain.
Mainly because AWD ops in real life too…
If AWD trumped in real life more race cars would be AWD. As it sits right now only rally cars IRL utilize AWD for racing and that’s because they race off road on inherently slippery surfaces. Even Dakar and trophy trucks are RWD. Formula one, go karts, motorcycles, nascar, Le Mans, GT3, prototypes.
Oh, and most “hyper cars” and current super cars are RWD in real life.
AWD has many more drawbacks than RWD. Considerable weight increase, complicated running gear, suboptimal engine placement and orientation to allow room for transfer case, driveshafts, etc. Also, in real life driving AWD cars at the limit of their grip leads to understeer which is undesirable in racing and the slowest way to go through a corner.
Even Audi runs RWD in their race cars. The R8 GT3 is RWD while the production variant is AWD.
The fastest cars around the Nurburgring in almost every measurable class are not AWD.
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For maybe ideological reasons AWD is not allowed by many racing regulations…
And the karts and the motorcycles ones make no sense. (as AWD is simply impractical for them)
Also note: reliability may be another consideration for those long distance traveling off-road vehicles. (but I don’t know much about off-road vehicles)
Nearly all of the drawbacks you described are non-existent on a properly designed AWD performance car (tarmac).
The advancement in the material science and the improved mechanism design have made the weight increase much less discernible.
Not necessarily true, especially for those with the rear-mid engine configuration (which is deemed the ideal configuration for general performance cars).
The tendency can be mostly eliminated using a properly tuned differential setting. (and theoretically completely eliminated with the aid of artificial intelligence)
And a specialized driving technique (utilizing the E-brake) helps with the handling too.
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What exactly are you expecting? When you have a high torque engine delivering all its power through 2 wheels it’s going to be at a grip disadvantage compared to 4 wheels.
Now, I agree on the PI cost point - there are meant to be other factors that balance the choice between AWD and RWD and, at the moment, doing the switch usually feels too cheap.