What are the pros and cons of both which is better to have on a car any input would help i dont understand y u would want one more than the other.
Thanks in advance for any information as u can tell i know nothing about cars.

 

everything has its benifits. all wheel drive has 2x the traction basicly, in a straight line. for launching, this is ideal, altho youll notice funny cars, and drag cars use rwd. but wrx and evo gets huge jumps from the launch.

other than that, the 4 wheels get better traction in poor weather, hard to lose traction to all 4 wheels at once.

rwd is less weight(only one transmission) it also has less drivtrain loss(again, only 1 drive shaft and transmission) nearly all forms of street racing use rwd, while rally and touring racing(such as some classes of lemans) use the 4wd.

it all depends on your intent, if your racing in the canadian snow, then 4wd is your friend, if you doing high speed tracks in california and florida, 2wd is plenty of traction, lets your front wheels concentrate on steering, and give you more power to play with.

 

AWD is nice, I've had 2 DSM cars with it but RWD is lots more fun in the twisties. Most AWD cars tend to have gross understeer in tight corners, particularly when you are trying to put the power down exiting a corner. The Z has been criticized for understeering at the limit, particularly in steady state skid pad tests but it is nothing like the understeer you get with a typical AWD car. AWD cars are quick off the line but since most of these cars are small displacement turbo 4 cylinders it is difficult to get the perfect launch. It usually involves a lot of clutch slipping (and short clutch life) or else the engine bogs. This does not apply to Porsches or Lambos with AWD of course. I had an RX7 before the DSM cars and now the Z and I personally love being back in a RWD car. Nothing is more fun than letting the tail hang out in a nice slide even if it isn't the fastest or safest way to drive.

 

There's only one transmission in a AWD car, but it will have multiple differentials, one front, one center, and one rear. The bias on the center differential has a large effect on how the car handles at the limit. My Audi urQ1 had a basic (but advanced for that day in age) 30/70 or 50/50 F/R power distribution. At the limit, the car would be quite neutral, and it was a blast to drive...

 

Let's not forget hat Audi has been extremely successful in DTM (With the 4WD TT) and in the GT class of Speedvison series in the US (with the 4WD S4); against Porsches (RWD), BMWs(RWD), and Acuras (FWD)

 

The only thing I miss about my Eclipse is 4wd!! It makes driving in snow so much easier! Although the 350 with snow tires is not that bad!!

 

Tires make more difference than anything in snow unless the weight distribution over the drive wheels is really low. I drove to Pittsburgh in my RX7 with Michelin performance tires and nearly died. 360 degree spin on a bridge in the middle of 3 lanes of rush hour traffic, never touched a thing & kept on going like Danny Sullivan at Indy! I got to the lowest point on my parents driveway and could not go forward or backward in about 3 inches of snow. I put on chains the nest day and drove to the Goodyear store, had genuine snow tires put on. After that I could stop on a sheet of ice on a steep hill and start back up without a problem. My dad could not get his FWD Sentra to start out in the same spot, had to back down to the bottom of the hill and get a running start. I took that RX7 to Vermont and NH and followed my buddy around in his 4WD pickup. I went everywhere he did.

Where I liked my DSM AWD cars best was in the rain, I could leave Vettes & 300ZX's behind with ease. They would spin & I could blast off at full boost with just enough wheel spin to avoid bogging the engine.

 

Ahhh, I've had this question myself quite often......So I got both AWD Talon and RWD Z. AWD is awesome in rain, snow, dirt, gravel and just about anything else. If Illinois has alot of any of these and you plan to drive in these conditions, I'd go with AWD. If not, RWD is cool too. In my Talon, in the rare case of rain in AZ, I have tons of fun.