4 wheel drive vs. 2 wheel drive

[Betty_Krocker]

Originally Posted by Bongle

Yes, but even with an uneven weight distribution you're losing pushing power. Even if you stack absolutely everything over your driven wheels, you're probably still losing 10-20% of your pushing power from the weight that will inevitably be over your undriven wheels. Plus you're adding a large design constraint in that all your heavy mechanisms must be in a column over your driven wheels to maximize force.

I understand your idea (though I did gloss that over in my original post, sorry) and it is definitely the most optimal way to implement a 2WD system, I just think that _any_ 2WD system is far from optimal this year.

well from concept everything is in the front anyway, but in this situation pushing power doesn't matter. I you want control you want pulling power. The same reason drift cars are rear wheel drive is the same principal rear wheel drive results in loss of control, and 4wd is going to work too hard to steer sicne the wheels would rather slip inline than transverse (which makes skid steer out of the question) i will admit that 4wd is a valid point, but all drive systems of this year have MAJOR tradeoffs, thus making not one type (except for rear wheel drive) the best, it will be interesting to see at competition....