Quote:
Originally posted by leftturn109
they dyno less horse power loss at the front wheels becuase there turning less weight.
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This is part of it, but it shouldn't be. If dyno's measured things properly, the results wouldn't have anything to do with drivetrain weight. That extra inertia certainly affects the acceleration of the car, but it has nothing to do with transmitted power. Rotational inertia acts more like adding extra weight to the car (a lot more weight in lower gears), which is physically very different from power. The dyno operator could get very different readouts depending on how quickly the machine allows the engine to rev up. I'll stop ranting now
FWD is a little more efficient than RWD because they use CV joints instead of U-joints, which work slightly better. RWD cars also usually have 6 U-joints, whereas FWD has 4 CV joints. This gives maybe 1-2% efficiency.
Some differentials in FWD cars may also be more efficiently designed since they're right next to the transmission. I'm not sure though.