Auto Racing: FR type, wheel drive cars, wheel drive car

Question
hi:

 Recently i been watching some japanese motorsport racing  video and the name is calld "best motoring". There is a car is made by mazda and is called RX7. The japanese people called this type of the car "FR Type". I only can guess FR means Front engine and Rear wheel drive. Do you really know what is that means?

My next question is rear wheel drive, front wheel drive and 4 by 4. When this type of car going down hill, up hill and turn into corners what are the differences.

thank you
stephen

Answer
Stephen-

  Yes,"FR" does refer do front engine, rear drive.  As for the handling differences between front, rear, and all wheel drive (4X4 cars are rarely set up to handle well), the difference is great.  Front wheel drive cars are very prone to understeer meaning that in a hard cornering situation the car is slightly less likely to respond than a rear wheel drive car.  On the flipside, a rear wheel drive car is more prone to oversteer which means the rear end has more of a position of determining the steering power of the car by pushing it through a turn rather than the car being pulled through a turn like a front wheel drive model.  All wheel drive sort of splits the middle ground and makes a comprimise since power is channeled to all 4 wheels.  For the purposes of racing a rear wheel drive model is almost always desireable since it can make the turns faster in the hands of a skilled driver due to the oversteer (or "rear steer" as it is sometimes called).  Hope this helps.

Steve