Cars you probably didn't realise were mid-engined

Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Don't tell anybody, but Porsche has shifted the 911 RSR's 'rear' engine forward, ahead of the axle.

PORSCHE 911 RSR

We might as well start with the car that inspired this article. When Porsche unveiled its 2017 GT racer - the 911 RSR - it surprised a lot of people by abandoning years of tradition and dropping the 911's rear-engine layout for a more balanced mid-engine layout. Apart from the enormous rear track and the massive rear diffuser, it is actually hard to pick from the outside, so a lot of people will be none the wiser.

So the RSR's 4.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-six now sits happily ahead of the rear axle. But as it is also used in the Cup and GT3 R racing cars, as well as the road-going GT3, it will still hang out in the traditional place as well. Right out the back, that is.

MERCEDES-AMG GT

What do you do when your hot-hatch engine is too large to fit under the bonnet? Renault put it in the back seat.

With its massively long nose and savagely truncated rear, the mighty AMG GT would appear to be the epitome of a front-engined/rear-drive sports car.

Except it is technically mid-engined. Front mid-engined, to be precise, as the GT's 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is tucked behind the front axle, which is actually why the nose is so long. It is also why the GT has a 47/53 front-to-rear weight distribution that makes it virtually unshakable at any speed.

Honda S2000's engine is tucked behind the front axle. So in the middle.

RENAULTSPORT CLIO V6

'Why don't we just stick it in the back seat?' is a phrase that must have been uttered at some stage when RenaultSport engineers where figuring out how to get a 3.0-litre V6 to fit into the small, decidedly front-engined, front-wheel drive Clio.

Porsche's Cayman and Boxster are and always have been mid-engined.

So they did just that and created the mid-engined, rear-drive Clio V6. With 188kW from the later cars, the Clio V6 was regarded as an hilariously silly car to drive, being both terrifying and amusing at the same time.

HONDA S2000

Hurst Hemi Under Glass was made by Hurst and had its Hemi engine in the back seat. You know, under glass.

In the same way that the Mercedes-AMG GT is mid-engined, so too is the Honda S2000. Like the GT, the S2000 tucks its screaming naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre VTEC engine well behind its front axle and possesses a theoretically perfect 50/50 weight distribution.

Except that, unlike the AMG GT, the early S2000s were balanced on a razor's edge; clumsy inputs anywhere (throttle, brake, steering wheel, looking in the mirror with the wrong expression) could cause it to spin off into the scenery. Later cars were made less hyperactive and by the time Honda finally introduced stability control to the S2000 in 2006, hardly anyone needed to have the upholstery drycleaned after a spirited drive.

Toyota Previa: middle of the road for sure, but it also had its engine in the middle.

A SURPRISING NUMBER OF PORSCHES

Hey, remember when we started this article by saying the Porsche abandoned years of tradition when it made the 911 RSR mid-engined? That really only applied to 911s, because Porsche has been making mid-engined cars for ages. Although the whole 911/rear-engine thing is so classically Porsche that a lot of people probably don't realise that many older models and two brand spanking new ones are actually mid-engined.

I am, of course, talking about the newly rechristened Boxster and Cayman twins - the 718. They are named after the 718 racing car Porsche built between 1957 and 1962, which was mid-engined, as was the car it was derived from - the legendary 550. In terms of road cars, the 914, the Carrera GT and 918 Spyder were also mid-engined.

HURST HEMI UNDER GLASS

Rather than just one car, Hemi Under Glass was a series of then-current model Plymouth Barracudas built by Bob Riggle, an employee of the Hurst Corporation. The company wanted an exhibition drag racing car to promote its line of race wheels and shifters. Riggle, perhaps taking a similar approach to RenaultSport, decided that the best way to get traction off the line was to shift the weight as far back as possible, so the Barracuda's big Hemi V8 was shifted into the back seat, leaving it visible through the rear windows - hence the name.

All this did, however, was make the Barracuda instantly do a wheel stand and stay up on its rear bumper until Riggle lifted off. Perhaps sensing more promotional advantage in this, the company entered the car in the experimental drag series anyway and, although it was never particularly fast, it quickly became a crowd favourite.

TOYOTA PREVIA

Yes, seriously: the original Toyota Previa was a mid-engined vehicle. Because the engine sat under the front seats and behind the front axle, the Previa met that criteria to be called 'mid-engined'.

It also meant that the 4WD versions could correctly be called 'mid-engined AWD', just like an Audi R8, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 918 Spyder and Bugatti Veyron.