Drivetrain Swap Guide
A drivetrain swap is the biggest upgrade decision you'll make on any car in FH6. I've done hundreds of these across my garage and I've ruined plenty of perfectly good cars with bad swaps. It changes how the car puts power down, how it rotates through corners, and which disciplines it's actually good at. It also costs significant PI, so you need to know what you're trading before you commit. A poorly chosen swap can absolutely destroy a car. A well-chosen one can make a car competitive in a discipline it was never designed for. I've seen both sides of this.
AWD Swap
All-wheel drive gives you traction pretty much everywhere. Better launch, better corner exit, better stability on mixed surfaces. For drag racing, AWD is the meta — the front wheels pull while the rears push, giving you faster 60-foot times than RWD can match. For dirt racing and cross country, AWD is basically mandatory. RWD on loose surfaces is a constant battle against oversteer, and not the fun kind. For road racing at S1 and above, AWD dominates competitive play. The extra grip out of corners more than pays for the PI cost. I fought this for a long time because I prefer RWD, but the lap times don't lie.
But AWD has downsides and I'd be lying if I said I don't notice them. It adds weight, typically 50-100 kg depending on the car. It introduces understeer that you'll need to tune out with front-biased aero and rear-biased differential settings. And it changes the character of the car — a rear-wheel drive Porsche becomes more clinical, more grip, less drama. Some drivers love that consistency. I miss the challenge of managing a RWD car on the limit. It's a tradeoff.
The PI cost of an AWD swap varies by car. On some chassis it's modest, 10-15 PI. On others it's 30-40 PI, which might bump you into a higher class where the competition gets significantly faster. Always check the PI impact before committing. I've seen people swap to AWD, gain 30 PI, get bumped to S1, and suddenly their car is the slowest thing on the grid. If the swap pushes you from the top of A class to the bottom of S1, you might end up with a car that's worse relative to its new competition.
RWD Swap
Rear-wheel drive is the purist's choice and honestly it's where the fun lives. It rewards skill with rotation, responsiveness, and the satisfaction of managing the throttle through corners. For drifting, RWD is required — AWD cars fight you on every slide, I've tried and it's a miserable experience. For lightweight track builds at B and A class, RWD keeps the PI low and the driving experience engaging. The lower weight compared to AWD means better braking and more nimble direction changes.
RWD is weaker off the line and more demanding on corner exit. You can't just floor it and let the front wheels pull you through. You need to feed in throttle progressively or the rear will step out. On wet roads, RWD is a liability — I've spun out on damp tracks more times than I can count. On dirt, it's basically a death wish. The best RWD builds are dry-road specialists where the driver is willing to trade consistency for engagement.
Some people swap perfectly good AWD cars to RWD just for the driving experience. Is it faster? Almost never. Is it more fun? Depends on what you're looking for, but for me? Yeah, it kind of is. A RWD Nissan GT-R is objectively worse than the AWD version. But it's also more involving, more dramatic, and more satisfying when you nail a lap. Sometimes that's the whole point.
FWD Swap
Front-wheel drive swaps are rare and usually a mistake. I've tried a few and I genuinely regret most of them. The only real use case is for very specific lightweight B and A class builds where the PI savings let you run significantly more power than AWD or RWD would allow. Even then, the handling compromises are severe. FWD cars understeer by nature and can't put power down on corner exit. The front tires are doing everything — steering, braking, and accelerating. They overheat and lose grip faster than any other drivetrain.
There are a handful of FWD cars in FH6 that genuinely work, like the Honda Civic Type R, but they work because the chassis was designed for FWD from the start. Swapping a RWD or AWD car to FWD almost never improves it. If you're considering a FWD swap, ask yourself whether you'd be better off just buying a different car. The answer is usually yes. Save your credits.
Engine Position and Drivetrain Interaction
Front-engine AWD handles differently from mid-engine AWD — I learned this the hard way after swapping a few mid-engine cars. A front-engine AWD car carries more weight over the front axle, which helps turn-in but can cause understeer if you're too aggressive. Mid-engine AWD has better weight distribution and rotates more naturally, but mid-engine platform cars tend to be expensive and rare. Rear-engine AWD like a 911 has enormous rear traction and launches harder than physics should allow, but the pendulum effect means the rear can overtake the front if you lift mid-corner. Terrifying when it happens, brilliant when you manage it.
Front-engine RWD is the classic sports car layout. Predictable, balanced, easy to control at the limit. Mid-engine RWD is sharper and more responsive but punishes mistakes harder. The lower polar moment of inertia means the car rotates faster, which is great when you're precise and catastrophic when you're not. Rear-engine RWD is the 911 layout: massive rear grip on exit, lift-off oversteer on entry. You drive it differently from every other car and that's why people love them. I still find 911s challenging after hundreds of hours.
When Not to Swap
Some cars lose their identity after a drivetrain swap and I'm not being dramatic about this. A Lancia Delta Integrale converted to RWD isn't a Delta anymore. A Mazda MX-5 converted to AWD loses the playful rear-end movement that makes it special. Before you swap, drive the car stock for an hour. Understand what it does well and what it does poorly. Then decide whether a drivetrain swap fixes the problems without destroying what made the car worth driving in the first place. I've undone more swaps than I've kept, honestly.
The PI cost matters more than you think. A 20 PI drivetrain swap that doesn't come with a corresponding lap time improvement is a downgrade, plain and simple. Test your lap times before and after the swap. If you're not faster, swap back. Credits are cheap — you can always earn more. PI is permanent on that build. Don't waste it.