Engine placement in cars
Why do some cars have their engines in the front and some in the back, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the two builds. And why doesn't every car have full wheel drive?
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Why do some cars have their engines in the front and some in the back, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the two builds. And why doesn't every car have full wheel drive?
$$$.
Front engine, rear drive is easy to build. Good driving characteristics until you lose traction in the rear, which isn’t hard because there’s not much weight back there. You get over steer which isn’t the easiest to deal with.
Front engine, front drive is cheap to build. Good driving characteristics until you start pushing the limits, then you get under steer which is easy to deal with by letting off the gas.
Rear engine, rear wheel drive. Same cost advantages of Front/front but has some quirky driving characteristics.
Rear engine, front drive: nope.
AWD: better driving characteristics, more cost and more weight.
Mid engine, rwd: similar to rear/rear, but costs more, better handling.
I need someone to go down the rabbit hole and tell me what attempts have been made to make this work.
I'm sure they all ended as fireballs.
Understeers into corner "Shit!"
Applies brakes and immediately oversteers "Fuck!"
Goes off ravine sideways "Oh, hell!"
Plummets to ground facing the sky "Shiiiiii-"
Engine block pierces through fuel tank on impact and gets exploded through the cabin
Anything can turn into fireball if you try hard enough.
Well that sure sounds exiting...
I would be willing to bet Buckminster Fuller probably tried it.
Any front engine rear drive car going in reverse, lol.
What about AWD mid engine?
Worst possible space efficiency and somewhat tricky routing. Lots of parts and complexity. But arguably the best performance and balance if you can deal with the cost and mass. Not uncommon, see Lamborghini, Porsche.
Pretty much obsolete at the top tier, though, since electric motors can trivially distribute the weight and drive even better.
Most supercars are AWD, find one with a mid engine and yeah
AWD adds weight, cost, and traction regardless of the engine layout.
AWD with a mini engine on each wheel.
Hoonigan made a video on a twin engine MX3 a few years back. Not quite 4, but it’s a cool car nonetheless.