Introduction to Automobile Layout

Topics
Understanding Automobile layout Category - Front wheel drive - Rear wheel drive - Four wheel drive History and current use

Automobile Layout
Describes where on the vehicle the engine and drive wheels are found. Many different combinations of engine location and driven wheels are found in practice, and the location of each is dependent on the application of the vehicle will be used for.

Factors influencing the design choice include cost, complexity, reliability, packaging ,weight distribution and the vehicle's intended handling characteristics.

Category
Front wheel drive
E.g- Audi A4,Audi A6 Audi A3,SAAB,Mini, Acura TL SH-AWD, Audi RS5.

 Rear wheel Drive

E.g Porsche 911 and Volkswagen Beetle

E.g

Four wheel drive

E.g Jensen FF, AMC Eagle and Mercedes-Benz W124 Suzuki Grand Vitara

Front wheel drive

The front wheels of the vehicle are driven. This layout is typically chosen for its compact packaging No need for a central tunnel through the passenger compartment to accommodate a prop-shaft between the engine and the driven wheels. The center of gravity is far forward. Weight shifting limits the acceleration of a frontwheel-drive vehicle

Advantage of FWD
Interior space. Improved fuel efficiency due to less weight. Reduced Cost. It is easier to correct trailing-throttle or trailingbrake oversteer. Weight: Fewer components usually means lower weight. The wheelbase can be extended without building a longer driveshaft (as with rear-wheel-driven cars).

Disadvantage of FWD
FF layouts are "nose heavy" with more weight distribution forward, which makes them prone to understeer. It makes heavier use of the front tires. Torque steer is the tendency for some front-wheel-drive cars to pull to the left or right under hard acceleration. In a vehicle, the weight shifts back during acceleration, giving more traction to the rear wheels.

Rear wheel drive

The driven wheels are the rear wheels. This was the traditional automobile layout for most of the 20th century. All motorcycles and bicycles use rear-wheel drive, either by driveshaft, chain, or belt. The FR layout is often chosen for its simple design and good handling characteristics. It uses a longitudinally-mounted engine in the front of the vehicle, driving the rear wheels via a driveshaft linked via a differential between the rear axles.

Advantages of RWD
Even weight distribution. Weight transfer during acceleration Steering radius Better handling at the hands of an expert Better braking Serviceability Can accommodate more powerful engines as a result of the longitudinal orientation of the drivetrain.

Disadvantage of RWD
Decreased interior space. Increased weight. Higher initial purchase price. Rear biased weight distribution when loaded. The possibility of a slight loss in the mechanical. efficiency of the drivetrain. Under heavy acceleration (as in racing), oversteer and fishtailing may occur as the rear wheels break free and spin.

Four wheel drive

It is a four-wheeled vehicle with a drivetrain that allows all four wheels to receive torque from the engine simultaneously. 4WD layouts are front-engined and are derivatives of earlier front-engined, two-wheel-drive designs. Front-engine, rear-wheel drive derived 4WD systems, standard in most sport utility vehicles and in passenger cars Transverse and longitudinal engined 4WD systems derived almost exclusively from front-engined, frontdrive layouts.

Advantage of 4WD
In terms of handling, traction and performance, 4WD systems generally have most of the advantages of both front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive. Traction is nearly doubled compared to a two-wheeldrive layout. Handling characteristics in normal conditions can be configured to emulate FWD or RWD, or some mixture, even to switch between these behaviours according to circumstance.

Disadvantage of 4WD
It require more machinery and complex transmission components. Increase in power-train mass, rotational inertia and power transmission losses, results in reduction in performance. The handbrake cannot be used to induce over-steer for maneuvering purposes, as the drivetrain couples the front and rear axles together.

History and current use

The first FR car was an 1895 Panhard model, so this layout was known as the "Systme Panhard" in the early years. The Oil crisis of the 1970s and the success of small FF cars like the Mini, Volkswagen Golf, Toyota Tercel, and Honda Civic led to the widespread adoption of that layout. Currently most cars are FF, including virtually all frontengined economy cars, though FR cars are making a return as an alternative to large sport-utility vehicles. Upscale marques like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Jaguar remained mostly independent of this trend, and retained a lineup mostly or entirely made up of FR cars.

Thank You