in short, early gas through corners

rwd is all-around faster, but awd is much more foriving to mistakes, good for a biginner like most of the people on this fourm, including me

 

truthfully i can't tell the difference between a rwd and my quattro...they feel the same to me...but i can say that i will never again drive a fwd car...but i've never taken my car in the snow nor pushed it at super duper high speeds around corners, which is the only way to see the quattro systems full ability...but i think just knowing it's awd and not fwd or rwd just gives me a sense of comfort and that it's safer all around..

 

This is my first AWD drive car. I've driven mostly FWD Hondas and RWD Mazada's and BMWs. I don't notice much difference at all when just driving around at normal speeds.

Did 2 track days in the S4...and found the handling to be pretty neutral, pretty forgiving....car will understeer when pushed...That seems to be a combination of it's weight and AWD. RWD tends to oversteer. FWD tends to understeer.

FWD is tends to be better than RWD in snow/rain...of course AWD is better than both FWD and RWD in snow/rain. FWD kinda sucks for racing, cause wheels don't like doing 2 things at the same time (turning and accelerating) and you get torque steer when applying power.

So...for straight out handling on dry surface, you probably want RWD. For most best all-round handling in all types of conditions, you probably want AWD.

 

yea..its nice on teh auto-x course...and in the snow its a beast with some nice snow tires...damn i loev the quattro..if you have the ESP on/opff button option then it's an easier time on the course...but i do just fine with it on...

--E

 

I did some runs with esp on and some with it off...couldn't tell the difference, so I am guessing that I never got into a situation were the esp would have taken action...

 

exactly....