Who's Best in the Snow? RWD BMW v FWD Audi Drag Race – Surprisingly, It's the Fun One

Naturally, higher latitudes get the worst of the cold season – anyone can drive in perfect weather. Still, it gets tricky when the road suddenly disappears under a thick layer of slippery white solidified water. That’s when winter tires come out to play – and every year, it appears that manufacturers develop a better rubber recipe, a grippier profile, a more responsive design, and whatnot.

The basic idea about winter and driving is the following: get the proper gear for the road. If it’s pouring down like the biblical flood has a sequel, slow down or stop. If it’s scorching hot, don’t over-rev the engine until the block is heat-soaked. If it is winter and 12 inches of snow, get adequate tires and leave the lead foot home.

The last bit applies mainly when a car is rear-wheel drive, and the fluffy snowflakes make it ever more tail happier than usual. Like, say, a BMW 320 sedan, notorious for its RWD-biased mindset. That’s not to say that putting the power down via the steering wheels at the front would be a much better solution – after all, it depends on the car in question. For the sake of the argument, one YouTuber decided to put the Beemer mentioned above against its age-old nemesis, Audi A4 40.

Two highly similar four-door sedans with nearly identical specs (187 PS, 400 Nm / 185 hp, 295 lb-ft), inline-four diesels. Here’s the significant difference: the Lord of the Four Rings has the engine hanging over the front axle and sends everything it’s got to the nearby wheels, whereas the BMW sticks to its traditional German creed ‘if it works, don’t change it; if it doesn’t work, we’ll engineer it until it does’ and send traction to the rear.

Both cars are loaded with driving aids of all sorts, including (but not limited to) slippery road surfaces or unfriendly environments – like arctic snow. One crucial detail – both automobiles are shod with identical (make, model, and size) rubbers. With all that being said, what could be better at revealing the importance of snow tires than a drag race? Or six, because why not?

Usually, when such a contest is concerned, people have the following image: screaming engines, blitz-fast shifts, blink-and-you-missed-it starts, brutal acceleration, and all systems off. This is precisely what’s not happening in the first test: driver aids are all on and on high alert; that’s why both the Audi and its German enemy, the BMW, take off granny-style. No slip, swirl, thrills, rush – and the two sedans stay neck and neck from start to finish.

Changing lanes won’t make a difference – until the drivers decide they’ve had enough of this stalemate of a race and turn off (almost) everything. This is where the RWD BMW leaves the Audi in a cloud of snow (mainly because the latter’s gearbox, albeit set on manual, suddenly begins to shift all by itself, gutting the Audi of its momentum and wheel-spinning acceleration).

The hill-start challenge doesn’t even the odds – the BMW easily wins the hill climb round, thanks to its driving wheels getting more load over them. The handling trials leave mixed feelings, though: with traction control on, the Audi is slower. But with driving aids active, the front-wheel drive gets the upper hand due to the different ways the system works on FWD vs. RWD architectures.

When the rear wheels put the power down, the traction limiter is more aggressive and cuts in early to stop the back end from going sideways. On the other car, however, the slip-preventing hardware allows higher revs so the driving wheels can pull the vehicle behind them.

Curiously, the final snow-driving conclusion is – believe it or not – that an RWD automobile (regardless of make and model) comes out on top of its FWD counterpart if equipped with the correct tires. That’s not to say the all-front architecture is terrible; it’s just not as fun as the other one. And keep in mind that the test was conducted on a closed circuit: on the road, leave traction controls on at all times – they’re there for a reason.

Curiously, the test ended without the most essential element of motoring: braking performance. If you disagree with me, imagine what it would be like going full-throttle in top gear and suddenly realizing the brakes don’t work. No, thank you. It would have been interesting to see how the tires perform under severe strain. Oh, and it would have been a lot more fun if the tire company providing the rubbers for this video would have agreed to a moose test.