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The ending on lowering the differential never explained why they didn't just use front wheel drive. Can anyone fill me in?
by thomasahle 6y ago
The ending on lowering the differential never explained why they didn't just use front wheel drive. Can anyone fill me in?
- WillPostForFood 6y agoYou need to be able to steer with the front wheels, so a simple differential like this wouldn't work. You need some additional complexity to support driving and steering with the same wheels (CV axles). It just took time for the technology to become cheaper, more compact, better engineered, and paired with smaller engines.
- userbinator 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-wheel_drive#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-wheel_drive#History The idea was around, it just wasn't very practical at the time due to various constraints on engine size and component layout. It was simpler to keep the driving and steering wheels separate. The stereotypical American car with a huge V8 filling the engine compartment and an equally massive transmission wouldn't leave much space to route the driveshafts[1]. Also, FWD requires a differential too. [1] They later tried to make a big engine and FWD fit, and ended up with this design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Toronado https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Toronado