Front-wheel drive Facts for Kids

Front-wheel drive, or FWD, is a car setup, where the car's power is at the front wheels. This makes the car safe in wet and snowy conditions, because it has better traction, or grip, to the road. But, FWD can cause uneven weight, which may cause brakes to fail if used for large periods of time.

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The historic 1934 Citroën Traction Avant — its model name literally means front-wheel-drive, one of the break-through innovations of the car.
Nicholas Cugnot's 1769 steam-powered gun-tractor.
1898 Gräf car
1899 Sutton Autocar
1899 Latil
1898-1901 Victoria Combination
1900 Lohner-Porsche
1925 Miller 122 Indianapolis 500 front-wheel-drive racer
The 1929 Cord L-29 (Phaeton) was the U.S.' first front-wheel drive production car, as well as the world's first to sport constant-velocity joints.
Constant-velocity joints allow a drive shaft to smoothly transmit power through a variable angle, at constant rotational speed.
Front-wheel-drive MF layout with engine behind the transmission in the 1930s. Renault widely used this configuration into the 1980s.
In 1932, Adler (German) launched Trumpf Junior, the earliest front-wheel drive car of which 100,000 units were sold, reaching that in 1939.
The 1959 Mini with a transverse engine
Transverse front-wheel-drive FF layout as pioneered in the Mini is today the most common in mass market passenger cars
1960's Renault 4 rolling chassis with gearbox ahead of engine
Front-wheel-drive FF layout as used by Audi and Subaru
Dante Giacosa's designed Fiat 128
The Chevrolet Cobalt, a front-wheel-drive car made from 2004 to 2010
Nissan GT-R LM Nismo.

Front-wheel drive facts for kids

Images for kids

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