ENGINES AT THE REAR

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21399, 15 February 1935, Page 18

ENGINES AT THE REAR

CHARACTERISTIC OF PIONEERING CARS In' recent years some automotivt authorities have expressed strpnf opinions ' about the rear-enginei car, but so far no major manufacturer has been prepared to fae« such a radical departure from th« conventional vehicle by putting the power-unit at the rear of t'rr? rhr ■•'•;*. In tne 'nineties many of the pionefl»» ing cars were rear-engineci. ...x:i as late as 1910, out of the 37 cars displayed at the Chicago Exhibition, 14 had the power-unit in the rear, six had it in the rear-centre, seven ia the centre of chassis, and only 10 in front, so that the ratio was 27 to 10 in favour of the rear-positioned engine. It is interesting to speculate what the car of to-day would have been like had the principle of those early rear-driven machines been adhered to right down through the years intoth* motor era, says the Dunlop-Perdriau Bulletin. The next few years will detennin* whether the world's motor industry took the wrong step or the right one at the beginning of this century, wbea it discarded the rear-engined mac&iri* and standardised on the front-engined chassis.