89LX Coupe

The way I see itas far as drag racing goes fwd>awd>rwd you can a rwd car to 60' way better than either platform with little modding at all to the suspention.

With sreet racing in mind, I could really see awd being a big advantage. Like my car in mind even with a good set of drag radials most of the time I'm spinning through 1st and 2nd with that being time lost. If I had a awd car with the same power and torque to the ground with close to the same weight from a lower roll or even a dig I believe it would do way better than my rwd platform just being able to hook up and take off with no worries. Plus I could have a lot more consistant results on the street as well to.

Bro just think of all the extra crap under all the vehicles you at my work lol, t-case ds front diff front axles sometimea extra suspention in some cases 2 piece rear ds. You know different weights of the parts to different cars but the same idea.

97tplsGT

I think you meant rwd>awd>fwd I know bout all the parts, its just hard to imagine it all adds up to that much

1.5LofFury

i'll throw in a good comparision for stock auto trucks then.

2wd vs 4wd Duramax Silverado's. regular cab long bed trucks (as basic as it gets). the 2wd truck traps 1-3mph faster, but the 4wd truck gets out of the hole a lot faster.

my old '04 Duramax, i was pulling 1.9 60' times bone stock, just launching in 4wd.

Soldier GT

Keep this thread going. Some really good info here.

perfect.disguise

The truth.
:[

Stone629

You're right man, I went off what I thought I remembered, lol. Its more like just under 200lbs difference. Still a pretty substantial drawback considering where all that extra weight is.

2006 Trailblazer SS 2wd = 4552lbs
2006 Trailblazer SS 4wd = 4729lbs

67mustang302

AWD's biggest advantage is really in "non-standard" traction conditions, dirt, rain, snow, ice etc.

In racing RWD wins out more often than not, simply because the added drivetrain loss vs the gained traction usually results in a slight performance drop overall. Even in road racing, where AWD may make a car easier to go around a turn with(but not necessarily better handling), it chews up more power and throttle response(and tire).

Plus, in a tight turn where the front wheels are cranked over pretty good, that puts a pretty large angle into the front joints. That huge joint angle creates a ton of force vectors that rob a lot of power...which then gets into the question of whether the extra drivetrain loss of AWD is worth it, considering you're losing a lot of power just to CV joint angle alone. Is whatever power that's getting to the front tires worth all the efficiency loss?

The fastest road course cars are still almost always RWD cars. Particularly in front engine cars where the extra weight up front of additional drivetrain makes the car even more nose heavy which has a pretty huge impact and handling.

And in drag racing, it doesn't take long to get to a point where you're transferring so much load to the rear that the front wheels do little more than steer the car.

Morbid Intentions

well yeah... you are comparing a turbo diesles torque curve @ 2,200RPM (stock stall) vs. a gasoline powered engines torque and power @ around 2200RPM... I should hope a Duramax diesel brake torquing would make gobs of torque to get off the line

the LS2 is a stout motor, but moving an extra 400lbs with more drivetrain loss from a dead stop @ a measly 2,200RPM (130WHP @ 300ft lbs) isn't exactly a recipe for a better off the line advantage when the 2WD counterpart can hook that power up just fine at less curb weight and more power getting to the wheels


To apply rough estimates and automotive math at the given stock stall RPM and power you are comparing the 2004 LB7 silverado's 220WHP @ 550ft lbs on the line to the Trailblazer's 130WHP @ 300ft lbs on the line....

to apply the vast difference in weight between the two applications the turbo diesel is making around 73WHP @ 183WTQ per ton from a dead stop vs. the trailblazers 54WHP @ 125WTQ per ton from a dead stop... the turbo diesel is easily going to see a better 4wd/AWD launch with the power and torque it has available from a stop hugging the stock stall


different applications will yield different results across the spectrum though... all I'm saying is the silverado's advantage of using all four of it's tires vs. the trailblazer's advantage of using all four of it's tires is night and day, the duramax is most definitely profiting at it's given power levels from a dead stop... the LS2? not so much

1.5LofFury

i was saying both trucks being Duramax's. a 2wd Duramax is a BITCH to get off the line. trust me.

Morbid Intentions

I edited a bit

I will trust you... I'm saying that a 2WD trailblazer is not, comparing the advantage of using all four wheels between the two is redundant if the 2WD variant is putting down the power well enough because of it's limited power at the stock stall... you are making all the power in the world on the stock stall in a turbo diesel... see what I'm saying?

to make the all wheel drive launch an advantage you need to be making enough power on the line to need the extra two wheels... that is the key

I'm not saying you are wrong, in fact you are very right... all I'm saying is there is a HUGE difference between an automatic 6.6L turbo deisel and an automatic 6.0L petrol engine building power on the line and a diesel's automatic transmission 4WD launch should not be applied to a petrol powered automatic transmission AWD/4WD launch in terms of what would happen