The petrolhead is part of an elite crowd, the crowd that understands the beauty of driving and the elegance of that elusive art. Now to a large majority of petrolheads it can be boiled to this easy statement: You have never driven unless you’ve driven a rear-wheel drive car. The fact that it should be a manual is another issue that shall be discussed in other much angrier posts.
The beauty of rear wheel drive is the fact that deep down it tickles that danger bone in everyone… a rear wheel drive car is a car that is, till now, dangerous! Mind you driver aids are available and traction control and all that, but the fact still remains: under steer (provided by front-wheel drive cars) is boring and actually a “safe” form of loss of control, no matter how much that statement tries to make sense… but my point is made, and all wheel drive, the holy grail of Rally car is, well, like using superglue instead of wheels, the cars cling inhumanly to the road!
Now back to the pulp of the matter, rear wheel drive providing copious amounts of oversteer, glorious glorious oversteer is one of the key factors that hones a driver’s senses and skills.
Feeling the car going into the curve as the rear end tries to step out and lose grip, controlling the whole car with the palm of your right foot, dabbing the gas and adjusting it to keep the wheels at the edge of grip. This type of interaction is what makes drivers good drivers.
A rear-wheel drive car scares the driver into respecting the car. If you become too adventurous or exuberant when u drive it, it will bite back, and it will fling you to the edge of the road or spin, grounding you back and instilling that fear, that knot in the pit of the stomach that is primordial for the evolution of driving. Because if you don’t respect your car you can never drive properly.
by Joseph Hasbany