There's also this Ryuz FF that could lap faster than Masami at the Japanese nats in the early 90s, so they were certainly competitive when developed.
and this
http://www.geocities.jp/feriocruise/.../poprod2b.html is of a fwd buggy that won in 1988 in Japan due to the dirt tracks they used
Quote:
Originally Posted by ashleyb4
what where they like where they faster than conventional 2wds?
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They didn't spin out easily like all the rwds did on dirt surfaces with the hard tyres we were using at the time, so were easier to drive. As we never really raced on such low grip surfaces in the UK they have never had any potential here. Unless we go back to the ice rink like surface that was Romsey in '87 (where the first prototype fwds appeared to be quick) then fwd will usually lose out to rwd.
Fwd is banned from
IFMAR competitions because the rules state the surface must be natural (no astroturf) and it must last for a weeks racing, so they are usually on hard packed dirt so usually not much grip. Try driving a dirt track with the hardest tyres in your pitbox to give you an idea of how tricky it was when the rules was made. They were banned to prevent racers needing a fwd and rwd car depending on track surface and conditions before they had a chance to be developed to be competitive. Banning them saves every racer having to buy one of each just in case so no one has an advantage, the same reason they banned LRPs sensored traction control system.