# Four wheel drive at NASCAR? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 4, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-wheel-drive-at-nascar/512579 "2009-10-04T19:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-wheel-drive-at-nascar/512579/21 "2009-10-05T21:59:34Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I wonder why the rules people would bother banning something that’s a disadvantage anyway. Because they can? > Anyway, I’m remembering things from my mis-spent youth, and I’m going to do a little research. Because it wouldn’t be a disadvantage, necessarily. There are two major difficulties: you’d have to set the car up to take advantage of the tendency to understeer that 4WD induces, and you have to compensate for the extra weight. In F1, the extra weight would be compensated for by the higher speeds you could carry into corners. In US open-wheel racing, cornering speeds are already ridiculously high because most of the tracks (ie., ovals) are banked. The first problem is bigger. Open-wheel racing teams have years and years of telemetry and experience they can use to set up rear-wheel drive cars. They have non for front-wheel-drive cars. That means they’d be really, really slow for a good year or two, as was the problem with the previous experiments with 4WD in F1. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-wheel-drive-at-nascar/512579/22 "2009-10-05T22:16:34Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Because it wouldn’t be a disadvantage, necessarily. There are two major difficulties: you’d have to set the car up to take advantage of the tendency to understeer that 4WD induces, and you have to compensate for the extra weight. > > In F1, the extra weight would be compensated for by the higher speeds you could carry into corners. In US open-wheel racing, cornering speeds are already ridiculously high because most of the tracks (ie., ovals) are banked. > > The first problem is bigger. Open-wheel racing teams have years and years of telemetry and experience they can use to set up rear-wheel drive cars. They have non for front-wheel-drive cars. That means they’d be really, really slow for a good year or two, as was the problem with the previous experiments with 4WD in F1. You just told us why awd _would_ be a disadvantage. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-wheel-drive-at-nascar/512579.md?page=1)