> Seems to me that in most cars there is a drive wheel and a non-drive
> wheel. If the drive wheel slips, you have no torque at either wheel, but
> if the non-drive wheel slips, you still have torque at the drive wheel.
There hasn't been a commercially made car built like that since oh, about
1915. The huge problem is that with only one wheel driven, the thrust is
not in-line with the center of mass (unless of course it's a single rear
wheel mounted in the center). Any non-trivial amount of power applied so
will cause terrible torque steer.
I once drove my FWD Audi 100LS with one side of the diff locked (broken CV
joint on that side). The least little application of throttle would cause
the car to change lanes WITHOUT turning the steering wheel. Granted, the
effect wouldn't be so severe on a RWD car, but it would still be pretty bad.
Even Go-carts drive both rear wheels, at least in part because of the torque
steer.
Randall
|