Front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Location of engine and transmission
By far the most common layout for a front-wheel-drive car is with the engine and transmission at the front of the car, mounted transversely.Other layouts of front-wheel drive that have been occasionally produced are a front-engine mounted longitudinally, a mid-engine layout and a rear-engine layout.
History
Prior to 1900
Experiments with front-wheel-drive cars date to the early days of the automobile. The world's first self-propelled vehicle, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's 1769/1770 "fardier à vapeur", was a front-wheel-driven three-wheeled steam-tractor. It then took at least a century for the first experiments with mobile internal combustion engines to gain traction.Sometime between 1895 and 1898 the Austrian brothers and bicycle producers Franz, Heinrich and Karl Gräf commissioned the technician Josef Kainz to build a voiturette with a one-cylinder De Dion-Bouton engine fitted in the front of the vehicle, powering the front axle. It is possibly the world's first front-wheel-drive automobile, but it never saw series production, with just one prototype made.
In 1898, Latil, in France, devised a front-wheel-drive system for motorising horse-drawn carts.
In 1899 the inventor Henry Sutton designed and built one of Australia's first cars, called The Sutton Autocar. This car may have been the first front-wheel-drive car in the world. Henry's car was reported in the English press at the time and featured in the English magazine Autocar, after which the car was named. Two prototypes of the Autocar were built and the Austral Otis Company was going to go into business with Henry to manufacture Henry's car but the cost of the car was too prohibitive as it could not compete with the cost of imported cars.
In 1898–99, the French manufacturer Société Parisienne patented their front-wheel-drive articulated vehicle concept which they manufactured as a Victoria Combination. It was variously powered by De Dion-Bouton engine or a water cooled Aster engine. The engine was mounted on the front axle and so was rotated by the tiller steering. The name Victoria Combination described the lightweight, two-seater trailer commonly known as a Victoria, combined with the rear axle and drive mechanism from a motor tricycle that was placed in front to achieve front wheel drive. It also known as the Eureka. By 1899 Victoria Combinations were participating in motoring events such as the Paris–St Malo race, finishing 23rd overall and second in the class. In October a Victoria Combination won its class in the Paris-Rambouillet-Paris event, covering the 100-kilometre course at. In 1900 it completed non-stop at. When production ceased in mid-1901, over 400 units had been sold for 3,000 Francs each.
A different concept was the Lohner–Porsche of 1897 with an electric motor in each front wheel, produced by Lohner-Werke in Vienna. It was developed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1897 based on a concept developed by American inventor Wellington Adams. Porsche also raced it in 1897.
19001920
of the United States patented a design for a front-wheel-drive car, the first prototype of which he built in 1904. He promoted and demonstrated several such vehicles, notably with transversely mounted engines, by racing at various speedways in the United States, and even competed in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup and the French Grand Prix. In 1912 he began manufacturing a line of wheeled fire engine tractors which used his front-wheel-drive system, but due to lack of sales this venture failed.In Australia in 1915 G.J. Hoskins designed and was granted a patent for his front-wheel-drive system. Based in Burwood NSW Mr Hoskins was a prominent member of the Sydney motoring industry and invented a system that used a "spherical radial gear" that was fitted to what is believed to have been a Standard. A photo of the car with the system fitted is available from the Mitchell Library and the patent design drawing is still available from the Australian Patent Office. reference; "Gilltraps Australian Cars from 1879 – A history of cars built in Australia" ISBN 0 85558 936 1
19201930
The next application of front-wheel drive was the supercharged Alvis 12/50 racing car designed by George Thomas Smith-Clarke and William M. Dunn of Alvis Cars of the United Kingdom. This vehicle was entered in the 1925 Kop Hill Climb in Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire on 28 March 1925. Harry Arminius Miller of Menomonie, Wisconsin designed the Miller 122 front-wheel drive race-car that was entered in the 1925 Indianapolis 500, which was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, 30 May 1925.However, the idea of front-wheel drive languished outside the motor racing arena as few manufacturers attempted the same for production automobiles. Alvis Cars did introduce a commercial model of the front-wheel drive 12/50 racer in 1928, but it was not a success.
In France, Jean-Albert Grégoire and Pierre Fenaille developed the Tracta constant-velocity joint in 1926. In October 1928 a sensation at the 22nd Paris Motor Show was the Bucciali TAV-6. Six years before the appearance of the Citroën Traction Avant and more than two years before the launch of the DKW F1, the Bucciali TAV-6 featured front-wheel drive. Both German makers DKW in 1931 and Adler in 1933 bought Tracta licenses for their first front-wheel-drive cars. Imperia in Belgium and Rosengart in France manufactured the Adler under the licenses using the Tracta CV joints. During the second World War, all British vehicles, U.S. Jeeps made by Ford and Dodge command cars used Tracta CV joints. Russia and Germany also used the Tracta CV joints, but without the licensing.
The United States only saw a few limited production experiments like the Cord L-29 of 1929, the first American front-wheel-drive car to be offered to the public, and a few months later the Ruxton automobile. The Cord L-29's drive system was again inspired by racing, copying from the Indianapolis 500-dominating racers, using the same de Dion layout and inboard brakes.
Moreover, the Auburn built Cord was the first ever front-wheel drive production car to use constant-velocity joints. These very specific components allow motive power to be delivered to steered wheels more seamlessly than universal joints, and have become common on almost every front-wheel-drive car, including on the front axles of almost every four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicle.
Neither automobile was particularly successful in the open market. In spite of the Cord's hallmark innovation, using CV joints, and being competitively priced against contemporaneous alternatives, the buyers demographic were expecting more than the car's top speed, and combined with the effect of the Great Depression, by 1932 the Cord L-29 was discontinued, with just 4,400 sold. The 1929 Ruxton sold just 200 cars built that year.
19301945
The first successful consumer application came in 1929. The BSA produced the unique front-wheel-drive BSA three-wheeler. Production continued until 1936 during which time sports and touring models were available. In 1931 the DKW F1 from Germany made its debut, with a transverse-mounted engine behind the front axle. This design would continue for 3 decades in Germany. Buckminster Fuller adopted rear-engine, front-wheel drive for his three Dymaxion Car prototypes.Other German car producers followed: Stoewer offered a car with front-wheel drive in 1931, Adler in 1932 and Audi in 1933. Versions of the Adler Trumpf sold five-figure numbers from 1932 to 1938, totalling over 25,600 units. In 1934, Adler added a cheaper, and even more successful Trumpf Junior model, which sold over 100,000 in August 1939, and in the same year Citroën introduced the very successful Traction Avant models in France, over time selling them in the hundred thousands.
Hupmobile made 2 experimental models with front-wheel drive in 1932 and 1934, but neither came into production
In the late 1930s, the Cord 810/812 of the United States managed a bit better than its predecessor one decade earlier. These vehicles featured a layout that places the engine behind the transmission, running "backwards,". The basic front-wheel-drive layout provides sharp turning, and better weight distribution creates "positive handling characteristics" due to its low polar inertia and relatively favourable weight distribution.. Another result of this design is a lengthened chassis.
Except for Citroën, after the 1930s, front-wheel drive would largely be abandoned for the following twenty years. Save the interruption of World War II, Citroën built some million Traction Avants through 1957; adding their cheap 2CV people's car in 1948, and introducing an equally front-wheel driven successor for the TA, the DS model, in 1955.
19451960
Front-wheel drive continued with the 1948 Citroën 2CV, where the air-cooled lightweight aluminium flat twin engine was mounted ahead of the front wheels, but used Hooke type universal joint driveshaft joints, and 1955 Citroën DS, featuring the mid-engine layout. Panhard of France, DKW of Germany and Saab of Sweden offered exclusively front-wheel-drive cars, starting with the 1948 Saab 92.In 1946, English car company Lloyd cars produced the Lloyd 650, a front-wheel-drive roadster. The two-stroke, two-cylinder motor was mounted transversely in the front and connected to the front wheels through a four-speed synchronised gearbox. The high price and lacklustre performance doomed its production. Only 600 units were produced from 1946 to 1950.
In 1946 in Italy, Antonio Fessia created his Cemsa Caproni F11, with 7 examples produced. His innovation was to create the happy combination of a low centre of gravity boxer engine with a special frame. Due to post-war financial problems Cemsa could not continue production, but the project was resumed when taken on by Lancia in the 50s. In 1954, Alfa-Romeo had experimented with its first front-wheel-drive compact car named "33". It had the same transverse-mounted, forward-motor layout as modern front-wheel-drive automobiles. It even resembled the smaller version of its popular Alfa Romeo Giulia. However, due to the financial difficulties in post-war Italy, the 33 never saw production. Had Alfa-Romeo succeed in producing 33, it would have preceded the Mini as the first "modern" European front-wheel-drive compact car.
The German car industry resumed from WW2 in 1949/1950. In East Germany, the pre-war DKW F8 and F9 reappeared as the IFA F8 and IFA F9 in 1949, followed by the AWZ P70 in 1955, the Wartburg 311 in 1956 and the Trabant in 1958, all with front-wheel drive. The P70 and Trabant had Duroplast bodies, and the Trabant had both a monocoque body and a transversely mounted engine, a modern design in some ways. In 1950 West German makers also reintroduced front-wheel-drive cars: DKW had lost its production facilities in Eisenach and reestablished itself in Ingolstadt. A version of the pre-war F9 was introduced as the DKW F89. Borgward introduced 2 new makes with front-wheel drive, the Goliath and the Lloyd in 1950. Gutbrod also came with a car in 1950; the Superior, but withdrew the car in 1954 and concentrated on other products. This car is best remembered for its Bosch fuel-injection.
In 1955, one of the first Japanese manufacturers to utilize front-wheel drive with a transversely installed engine was the Suzuki Suzulight, which was a small "city" car, called a kei car in Japanese.
In 1955, the Polish producer FSO in Warsaw introduced the front-wheel-driven Syrena of its own design.
In 1959 Austin Mini was launched by the British Motor Corporation, designed by Alec Issigonis as a response to the first oil crisis, the 1956 Suez Crisis, and the boom in bubble cars that followed. It was the first production front-wheel-drive car with a watercooled inline four-cylinder engine mounted transversely. This allowed eighty percent of the floor plan for the use of passengers and luggage. The majority of modern cars use this configuration. Its progressive rate rubber sprung independent suspension, low centre of gravity, and wheel at each corner with radial tyres, gave a massive increase in grip and handling over all but the most expensive cars on the market. It initially used flexing rubber instead of needle rollers at the inboard universal joints of the driveshafts but later changed to needle rollers, and GKN designed constant-velocity joint at each outboard end of the drive shafts to allow for steering movement. The Mini revived the use of front-wheel drive which had been largely abandoned since the 1930s.