Quote Originally Posted by StraightSix
I'm going to disagree with you here. FWD cars have inherent understeer. Think about it like this, the front wheels are doing all of the work; controlling direction and putting power to the ground as well as carrying the entire weight of the driveline. So, in real world applications, FWD asks the front tires to do a lot of things. Much more of the vehicle's weight is transferred to front under braking, and too much transferred to the rear under acceleration. Also, suspension geometry in a FWD is worse because of the driveline packaging than most RWD cars.

FWD cars can be prepped such that they have much better balance. It takes quite a bit of work, however. Things like much larger rear sway bars, higher spring rates, sticky tires and better damping. As an example, I have some friends who Time Trial with NASA. One has a 1991 Toyota MR-2 with Koni Yellows, and Toyo RA-1s in the stock sizes. The other a 1990 Honda Civic sedan. The cars are typically with in a second or two of each other. But here's the kicker...the Honda has a ZC swap, modified Si transmission, Koni Yellows/Ground Controls, big Suspension Techniques rear sway, RA-1s, and EX front brakes with the correct master cylinder. Granted the MR-2 isn't a front engine, rear wheel drive car, but the comparison still holds. My friend with the Honda had to work a lot harder to make his car competitive against a less prepped car.
i see what your saying, and i agree that FWD will NEVER be faster between 2 evenly prepared cars. but i still feel like the throttle has more control in a FWD car. in a rwd car, you give more gas to get more rotation, given that you have a decent setup (ignore track related variables. just take any given average turn.). but if you lift in the turn, you are gonna get alot rotation as well. in a fwd, if you increase throttle you get understeer, if you lift you get oversteer. this makes it much easier to control the car. if you get alot of slip angle going into the turn, you can get on it harder coming out. if you push going in an you are on the gas, you can lift and the car will rotate some.

i KNOW its not ever going to be faster, but it is generally easier.