RE: awd vs rwd braking

[Luis Marques <marques@rtis.ray.com>]

I have to agree with Scott that braking performance has less to do about
which wheels are driven and more to do with the weight distribution
under braking and how big your contact patches are.  All else being
equal (read equal weight, wheels and tires), the car that approaches
50:50 weight distribution while braking at over 1G will have the best
performance.  In other words, something like a Porsche 911.  RWD or
AWD.  With the rearward static weight bias, more weight is available at
the rear under braking allowing the rear end to do more of the work. 
Any car with a 50:50 or front-biased weight distribution will have less
traction available at the rear to let the rear brakes work as much as
the fronts.  Hint: if you want to know what car has the pottential for
better braking, look at which one has the biggest rear brakes.

Oh, about the gen. I quatto, a locked center diff doesn't split torque
50/50, it varries between 0-100% forcing the front and rear ends to runs
at the same speed.  What this does is it acts as a "poor man's ABS"
preventing premature lockup.  It will also brake better than a torsen. 
Now, if we wanted the ultimate handling car, we would want 50/50 weight
distribution under cornering and 50/50 under braking.  We would need a
ballast that moves back and fourth inside the car.  Humm... a certain
DTM Mercedes comes to mind.

Luis Marques
'87 4kcsq