Rear Wheel vs. Front Wheel vs. All-Wheel Drive

My screen blinked full of matches when I typed "rear-wheel drive" into Google--among them, www.rearwheeldrive.org. Created by Parker Thomas, the site's a simple but delightful online shrine to rear drive. When Thomas was visiting Australia a few years ago, he was bowled over by the multitude of fun-handling rear-drive cars still available in that lost world of drivetrains. His site grew out of the epiphany and includes this, my favorite bit from his Drive Line Quiz:

Question 7: Which type of vehicle accelerates and handles best while driving backwards?
A. Front-wheel drive.
B. Rear-wheel drive.
Answer: A. Front-wheel drive, since it's functioning as rear-wheel drive at the time!

Attaboy...
Thomas's dream seems set to come true. Rear drive is in vogue right now, with a roster of car manufacturers pregnant with 300- and 400-horsepower rear-drive cars they'll soon be hawking at dealerships near you. Here's crossing our fingers that stability control will protect us from all those sweaty-fingered young drivers who've never operated a rear-drive car.

The current chic allure of rear drive should be amusing to anyone older than 30. Three decades ago, Congress enacted the first Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards in response to the 1973 oil crisis, and Detroit's reaction was to push the go button for front drive. Its lighter weight and denser packaging--long evolved in Europe--looked like part of the answer, allowing, as it did, smaller and lighter cars while retaining much of the interior volume super-sizing Americans delight in. But the second oil spike of 1979 wasn't followed by a third. Prices ebbed and worries eased. As Chrysler's Tom Gale said in a 1999 article written by Bill Visnic in Ward's Auto World, "We don't have the political will to do something about the (unnaturally low) price of fuel," adding that without it, "you'll have people driving around in Kenworths." With memories fading, the fuel-economy penalty of rear- and all-wheel drive, relative to front drive, is now rarely mentioned.

But what's behind their differences for the enthusiast driver? To investigate, we rounded up a trio of potent, 3000-horsepower (or so) sedans that exemplify each type. Like kids with magnifying glasses and three flies pinned to the table, we tortured them for answers around the skidpad, sifted through technical documents, and handed their keys to a driving expert at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving.