What are the pros and cons of 2wd vs 4wd when it comes to road race or AutoX?

 

anyone?

 

"Hurley Haywood:

"(Carrera 4) maintains it's performance over a longer period of time. On a race track, the Carrera 2 would be faster for one or two laps. But over a five lap period, the Carrera 4 would be quicker because it manages it's tires better and allows you to lay down power through all four wheels."

 

anyone else?

 

I don't think this is as clear cut as you're looking for. Which is "faster" depends almost entirely on how and in what conditions you drive in. In the end, I would be surprised if anyone here could find more then a tenth of a second between the two, and there are quite a few proficient drivers here. I personally liked the looks and the added security of the C4S, but it's entirely personal opinion.

 

You could go to Audi in recent touring car past to see when they were allowed to use AWD it was a benefit. That said, the BTCC A4's of the 90s and the Champion S4s of 2002 and to a lesser extent the Champion RS6's of mid/late 2000 show that AWD has significant advantages in two key areas. 1) they make for a blistering standing start. However if the race series in question started from a roll on pace car lap, that advantage would be compromised. 2) In adverse conditions, rain or to a lesser extent oil, show that the car with the most driven wheels has a clear advantage.

Now the system used by the C4/4S/Targa/Turbo is not the same as Audi uses in their road cars, and even lesser still what Audi raced with in touring cars. So it should be noted that simply AWD to RWD can be worth discussing, but once you compare AWD to AWD, what type of differentials are in use and what control the driver has over them (or computer) comes into play.

I think in answer to your question it would depend entirely on the track. Since the AWD in the 911 is mostly RWD compared to other AWD cars (say a VW R32 or Audi A3 Haldex system, where they are FWD biased AWD). At the start the the AWD 911 will get a jump, and given the marginal weight difference, it should hold that lead irrespective of how long the run to turn 1 is. But I'm thinking this would be a car length at most.

After that it's the track. I think if the track had a lot of high speed sweeping turns, the times would be very similar. While the AWD makes better use of grip to put power down, it also carries more weight around to do so (so harder on tires by weight virtue, but better on tires putting power down). However if the track had a fair amount of low speed corners where the ability to power out is crucial, the AWD will likely be quicker.

AutoX would likely favor the AWD given the relative low speeds and sharp turns that are common.

 

thanks ryan for that answer, much appreciated!

 

In this Top Gear episode they do a brief comparison between the C4 and C2. (EDIT: Shortcut to 36:06 for the comparison)

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/T...ode_711344.htm