History Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout

1 history

1.1 gallery

1.1.1 rear mid-engine transversely-mounted, rear-wheel-drive layout
1.1.2 rear mid-engine longitudinally-mounted, rear-wheel-drive layout

history

the 1900 nw rennzweier 1 of first race cars mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. other known historical examples include 1923 benz tropfenwagen. based on earlier design named rumpler tropfenwagen in 1921 made edmund von rumpler, austrian engineer working @ daimler. benz tropfenwagen designed ferdinand porsche along willy walb , hans nibel. raced in 1923 , 1924 , successful in italian grand prix in monza stood fourth. later, ferdinand porsche used mid-engine design concept towards auto union grand prix cars of 1930s became first winning rmr racers. decades before time, although mr miller specials raced few times @ indianapolis between 1939 , 1947. in 1953 porsche premiered tiny , altogether new rmr 550 spyder , in year notoriously winning in smaller sports , endurance race car classes against larger cars—a sign of greater things come. 718 followed in 1958. not until late 1950s rmr reappeared in grand prix (today s formula 1 ) races in form of cooper-climax (1957), followed cars brm , lotus. ferrari , porsche made grand prix rmr attempts less initial success. mid-engined layout brought indianapolis in 1961 cooper car company jack brabham running high third , finishing ninth. cooper did not return, 1963 on british built mid-engined cars constructors brabham, lotus , lola competed regularly , in 1965 lotus won indy type 38.

the first rear mid-engined road car 1962 (rene) bonnet / matra djet, used 1108cc renault sierra engine, mated transaxle fwd renault estafette van. 1700 built until 1967. followed first de tomaso, vallelunga, mated tuned ford cortina 1500 kent engine vw transaxle hewland gearsets. introduced @ turin in 1963, 58 built 1964-68.

finally, in 1966, lamborghini miura first high performance mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive roadcar. concept behind miura of putting on road grand tourer featuring state-of-the-art racing-car technology of time; hence miura powered v12 transversely mounted between rear wheels, solidal gearbox , differential. represented extremely innovative sportscar @ time when of competitors (aside rear-engined porsches), ferraris aston martins, traditional front-engined, rear wheel drive grand tourers.

the pontiac fiero mid-engined sports car built pontiac division of general motors 1984 1988. fiero first two-seater pontiac since 1926 1938 coupes, , first , mass-produced mid-engine sports car u.s. manufacturer.

gallery
rear mid-engine transversely-mounted, rear-wheel-drive layout


















































rear mid-engine longitudinally-mounted, rear-wheel-drive layout