I Bin Therbefor

In 1963 Zora designed the CERV II which had a four wheel drive. The car was a mid-rear engined car: front wheels, driver, engine, rear wheels. Four wheel drive was provided by two two-speed automatic transmissions with torque converters; one mounted at the traditional position of the rear of the engine driving the read wheels and one mounted at the front of the engine driving the front wheels. The experimental CERV II was built and tested. The project was cancelled in 1964.

Ferrari has introduced an interesting evolution of this concept on the 2012 Ferrari FF. The FF is a mid-front engined car as is the Corvette; Front wheels, engine, driver, rear wheels.

In the FF there is a seven speed dual clutch transmission in the rear, between the rear wheels, a trans axle, driven by a drive shaft attached to the rear of the engine.

In addition there is a power transfer unit attached to the crankshaft at the front of the engine which consists of an automatic transmission with two forward gears and one reverse gear. Power passes through this front transmission to two electronically controlled clutches. Each clutch transmits power to one of the front wheels. Hydraulic servos are used for gear changing. Controlled clutch slippage allows the two speed front axel to work with the seven speed dual clutch transmission powering the rear axel. The low front gear works with the 1st and 2nd gears; the high front gear works with th3 3rd and 4rth gear. When the rear transmission is in 5th gear or above, the front transmission is disengaged.

Up to 20% of the total engine torque is available to the front wheels.

Claimed advantages are: all-weather tractability, improved launch acceleration and torque vectoring. One computer regulates all the car’s traction, breaking and stability systems.

Additional weight is about 90lbs, which half or less of other four wheel drive systems.

There; a relatively light 4 wheel drive system developed from the Corvette God-Father’s original 1963 design. This system could easily be added to the present C-6 Chassis and Drive Train architecture without major changes. Simply attach the front transmission and drive components to front of the LS engine, re program the existing computer, and you’re done.

RC45

Yeah, that AWD really worked out for Ferrari.

I Bin Therbefor

Nothing will negate the laws of physics or compensate completely for the nut behind the wheel.

range96

The so called car magazine experts driving cars at their limit? The guy didn't even have a clue what just happened. It didn't even looked like he pushed it hard at all. Maybe he thought AWD will drive the car for him.

He ran off the road without even spinning. Looked like major understeer to me!

S'vette

I think that guy knew he was in some serious trouble after that.

Rob04C5LM

True, but do you want it to? I just watched "Ticket to Ride" on Speed last night where they show that BMW has rolled out an electronic nanny system in the new 5-series that would allow a driver to floor the car around a road course and the aforementioned "nanny" would apply braking, throttle reduction, and skid control to keep the car on the road and prevent all power oversteer. "Ultimate Driving Machine"? or "Ultimate Drive for Me Machine"? The scary thing is that the NHTSA safety nut-jobs will probably look at this and decide to mandate it in all cars after a certain production date.

For me, there's something visceral about a rear drive car that oversteers when I press the go pedal through a corner

Rinaldo Catria

He just hit a pedestrian but he’s worried about losing his job as “pompous car mag jerk”..