Is there a limit to how much power a front wheel drive car can realistically cope with if so what?

Question

Is there a limit to how much power a front wheel drive car can realistically cope with if so what?

Answer 1

it really depends on the car.  The limitation is basicaly that the axles are weak because they are smaller.  People who are making big horsepower with front wheel drive cars change thier axles over to titanium, but even still they snap sometimes when they launch the car. It really depends on the application and the particular car.

Answer 2

When you accelerate, the  c of g shifts backwards,  and the biggest limiting factor is loss of tyre grip giving wheel spin .Early Saab turbos were prone to wheel spin with thier max BHP coming on song in a narrow power band due to  turbo lag followed by all the power in one big  power boost. Good fun, but I would have prefered it in a mid engine rear wheel drive car. You get better traction from wheels pushing weight rather than pulling as in front wheel drive. I think the later 16 valve turbos with inter cooler produced 200bhp, but the turbos were much smaller so there was a different spread of power. I think the early turbos were about 150bhp.

Answer 3

if u got the money and the means to do all the mods required, u can get buku power out of it. there are all kinds of proffessional drag cars out there running front wheel drive.

Answer 4

As stated above there are alot of things to consider when you want alot of horsepower with both rear and front wheel drive vehicles.

Just adding 100 horsepower to any vehicle can do alot of damage if the drive-train cannot handle it, broken axles, broken CV-joints, broken mounts, wheel bearings, damaged transmissions and so on.

You need to do more research before you just add extra horsepower to any vehicle and the ones that have been done professionally have $10,000 plus in these vehicles.

Answer 5

Yes there is a limit to the amount of power that can go through the front wheels.  As the other answerer says you can bust CV joints or drive shafts with too much power but thats only if you are trying to drag race another car from the traffic lights!

The bigger problem is torque steer. Your car will not steer properly through corners as the wheels are attempting to drive it in a different direction.  A recent example of a car with this problem was th Ford Focus RS - a fantastic car for a track day - but a savage to drive on twisty roads for the casual driver.

As a rough rule of thumb about 210 bhp is the most you want to put through the front wheels (tho the 4 wheel drive Veyron delivers this much to the front wheels).

Any more and you have to start making some major changes to the car suspension, drives and differentials.