A Quick Course in Front-Wheel Driving

If you are the cautious type, chances are you can motor around in a front-wheel-drive car for years without the slightest problem. But if you consider yourself an undiscovered Mario Andretti and operate your car with a certain brio, you may be in for some surprises the first time you try to go quickly in a car that pulls instead of pushes. To the man who cares about high-performance cars and driving, front drive is both a blessing and a curse. Its benefits lie in excellent traction in mud, ice, snow, etc., and in superior straight-line stability; but it can be a handicap to the uninitiated when trying to whistle through corners with the same driving techniques employed in conventional rear-drive machinery.

The bugaboo is understeer. Because front-drive cars carry a majority of their mass---engine and transmission---in the nose, directly above the wheels that transmit the power to the road, they generate a driving phenomenon called understeer. Quite simply, this means that the front pair of wheels slides under cornering while the rear set maintains traction. (Oversteer is the opposite; the rear wheels slide while the fronts stay stuck.) Therefore, if one sails into a corner too quickly in a front-drive car, he will discover his front wheels sliding merrily straight ahead, regardless of how much he turns the steering wheel. If he recalls the old racing adage about powering your way out of trouble, he has guaranteed himself a trip into the weeds. To be sure, when driving a conventional rear-drive automobile, a slide can easily be corrected by a bold jab of the throttle, but the same tactic with a front-drive machine will exacerbate an already nasty situation. More power will only make the front wheels slide more severely, thereby hastening one's departure off the road.

The conventional wisdom about cornering quickly with a front-drive car is to enter the turn with things completely under control and steadily apply power all the way through. Rear-drive cars can be "tossed" into a corner at very high speeds and slid through with a combination of opposite lock steering (steering into the skid) and throttle applications; but the same actions with a front-drive machine will send it plowing smartly straight ahead and perhaps into the nearest tree. Yet if the car arrives at the corner with things in order---on the right line, with all braking completed and at the proper velocity---it can be whipped through with real speed and alacrity. The secret is smoothness. Braking, downshifting and getting the car on the right line must be completed in an orderly fashion before the apex of the corner comes up. Then the throttle can be opened, permitting the automobile to accelerate out of the corner. In a sense, a rear-drive car is more forgiving, because it permits power to be used as a safety factor. That is not so in front-drive machines (though some professional European rally drivers use simultaneous applications of throttle and brake to corner at incredible speeds, but that is an esoteric technique restricted to those aspiring to win the Monte Carlo Rally), which react to power much like polar bears do to BB guns---it only makes them crankier.

The solutions to massive understeer in a corner are threefold: (1) Stay off the throttle; (2) make light braking applications, being sure not to lock up the wheels; (3) engage in deep prayer that you will get things slowed down and under control before you run out of road. However, all of this can be avoided if you recall one thing: Your front-drive car loves to go straight---even when going around corners. Therefore, if you coax it into twists and bends at judicious speeds, you will delude it into thinking it is still running a straight line. Then after you have negotiated half the turn and open road lies ahead, you can jump back on the throttle, which will induce it to return to straight-ahead travel just as you exit the corner.

We call that mind over matter. Or good sense over understeer.