REAR ENGINE CARS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 June 1928, Page 16

REAR ENGINE CARS.

Continental designers continue to experiment. with placing the engine over the rear axle, and even the failure of the German Bumpier car to become popular lias not stopped the tendency. The Bumpier Company tackled rear engine installations on an ambitious scale some years ago, and what merits the radical system possessed were, given prominence.

A new French rear engine ear designed by .Jacques Gorin has made its appearance on the Continent. The inventor claims the (following outstand advantages for his design. He considers, by the way, that on account of streamlining considerations, all cars in the future will have their engines at the rear, and tin's being quite possible, one must admit after sitting in one of these cars that the driving position is really deliglittur. -The visibility from

the seats is most extraordinarily increased. The noise of the engine is .omp.etely suppressed, although the power unit in itself is none too silent. As a matter of fact, all experienced drivers know that it is quite impossible to drive an engine without hearing it. Something will therefore have to be devised to make the driver, but the driver alone, “hear” his engine as it runs But such total silence could hara’ly he called a fault by his fellowpassengers. Fumes are noticeably- absent irom the body, as all exhaust gases are, of course, swept away at the rear. M. Jacques Germ’s power unit, includes a short three-speed gearbox, with central change, and an especially short transmission to the rear wheels. The reduced length of its axles goes a long way toward the suppression of transmission noises. Good accommodation is provided tor a small trunk inside the tody. The aero dynamical e.iiciency or such a car is without any possible comparison with the conventional type of car, as our readers are well aware. And this should probably be the greatest claim of M. Jacques Gerin’s new car if he did not hold in reserve a greater invention still. The engine as a whole, or the block-moteur, is separable from the body. In less than seven minutes, and by undoing twelve nuts only, the whole of the -mechanical parts, engine, clutch, gearoox and transmission, still resting on the rear wheels, and thus quite easily accessible f-r repairs, come away and are unharnessed ironi the chassis. They can be wheeled away into the repair shop, just as a tired horse is taken away to the stable, and replaced in seven more minutes with another power unit. The side, mourners of the irame are built as sliding rails to allow of such a movement.