FWD performance = non existent?

[Blinky]

Originally Posted by RabidRat

I think in the original context you were saying that newer civics with the new strut type suspension up front don't handle well because of their Mac struts. Is it necessarily true then?

All else being equal, a double A-arm suspension will be better than a strut-type suspension. Both old and new civics are front drive, front engine; the newer civic is heavier too which doesn't help. Without driving them back-to-back I would confidently guess that the older civic will be a bit nicer, because they're fairly comparable cars.

Conversely the SoooooooUUUUPRA and Peenmobile are quite different in layout, and I'm guessing weight. A "good" implementation of a more fundamentally limited design will be better than a "crappy" implementation of a fundamentally "better" design.

(compare a modern small-displacement inline 4 with an early 80s V8)

Maybe it's just gotten to that point where Mac struts just aren't the limitation they used to be.

99.9% of the time McStrut vs double a-arm doesn't matter. It certainly doesn't matter in day-to-day driving, and it's obviously possible to have tons of fun with McStruts. For that 0.1% of the time though (such as any high level of motorsport), the difference in performance makes the additional cost etc worth it.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by Blinky

All else being equal, a double A-arm suspension will be better than a strut-type suspension. Both old and new civics are front drive, front engine; the newer civic is heavier too which doesn't help. Without driving them back-to-back I would confidently guess that the older civic will be a bit nicer, because they're fairly comparable cars.

The 8th gen Civics run a Mac strut front with a Double wishbone rear. From a handling point of view, with mod for mod, the older Civic is definately a lot more fun to drive.
Just ask James and Roger in their STS Civic.

As for the Supra vs GT2, that isn't a fair comparison since the 2 cars do not belong in the same class. The Supra is more of a tourer while the GT2 is an all out sports car. Stock for stock, the GT2 has stiffer springs than the Supra. Different tires. The supra is longer with an inline 6 and a full trunk while the GT2 has the engine over the rear wheels.

Why not compare a C2 vs a GT3. Stock for stock, the C2 is deffinately not in the same league as the GT3.

But once you allow mods to band-aid specific short comings, things can get interesting really quickly.

I can't remember the specific year, and I don't feel like goggling it right now. But Al Unser Jr. won the Indy 500 and the following year both him and his team mate couldn't qualify for the same race. The reason was because the car had issues with the handling and the previous year, the problem was masked by the higher powered motor. The following year, CART limited hp production and so they found themselves not being able to compete with the other teams.