Automobile Layouts - Four-Wheel Drive, Automobile Layout, Front-Wheel Drive, Rear-Engine, Rear-Wheel Drive Layout, Mid-Engine Design (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 32. Chapters: Four-wheel drive, Automobile layout, Front-wheel drive, Rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, Mid-engine design, Front-engine, front-wheel drive layout, Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, Front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, Mid-engine, four-wheel drive layout, Rear-engine design, Drive wheel, Two-wheel drive, Mid-engine, front-wheel drive layout, Front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, Six-wheel drive, Rear-engine, front-wheel drive layout, Eight-wheel drive, Front-engine, four-wheel drive layout, Front-engine design, Rear-engine, four-wheel drive layout, Individual-wheel drive, Ten-wheel drive, Twelve wheel drive. Excerpt: Four-wheel drive, 4WD, or 4x4 ("four by four") is a four-wheeled vehicle with a drivetrain that allows all four wheels to receive torque from the engine simultaneously. While many people associate the term with off-road vehicles and Sport utility vehicles, powering all four wheels provides better control than normal road cars on many surfaces, and is an important part in the sport of rallying. In abbreviations such as 4x4, the first figure is normally taken as the total number of wheels and the second is normally taken as the number of powered wheels (the numbers are actually axle-ends to allow for more than one wheel on each end of an axle). 4x2 means a four-wheel vehicle in which engine power is transmitted to only two axle-ends: the front two in front-wheel drive or the rear two in rear-wheel drive. Most 4WD/AWD fall into four categories: Controls for locking center, front, and rear differentials independently. In the view of some, it is the ability to lock differentials that distinguishes 4WD from AWD.The term four-wheel drive typically describes larger passenger vehicles that may allow the driver to manually switch (sometimes with an automatic option) between two-wheel drive mod...