What does it mean to you when we say rear-engined cars? Other than a Porsche, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari, that is? Drawing a blank? Well, while many supercars are rear-engined for better speed, agility, and balance, there have been less speedy rear-engined cars in the history of automobiles. Many of them were cars you have seen, or heard about, or even driven during your lifetime.
The idea of a rear-mounted engine for a rear-wheel-drive is the same as that of a front-mounted engine on a front-wheel-drive. The weight distribution makes for faster acceleration. But was that true every time? Here are 9 cars you may not have known that had rear-mounted engines.
9 Volkswagen Type 2: No, Not The Beetle
The Beetle was the Volkswagen Type 1. The Type 2, was the Microbus – the much acclaimed and famed Volkswagen Bus (US) or Camper (UK). The father of all modern passenger vans, this Hippie Van of the flower power era had a rear-mounted engine – directly lifted and adapted from the Volkswagen Type 1, aka, the Beetle.
With the front being engine free, the inside space was very practical for family or friends making it one popular car with the youth. The engine at the back could be accessed from a rear-hinged door and was placed beneath the last row seat, thus making it pretty ergonomic. Now, with the Volkswagen Bus long gone, collectors are paying dear monies for one.
8 Fiat 500: The Beetle Opponent
With the Beetle having created serious competition for just about every car brand who wanted to launch an iconic small car, Fiat managed to put some serious thought into the Fiat 500. Put forth as direct competition to the Beetle, the Fiat 500 may not have sold as well as its competitor, but will always have its fans.
And then there are the performance models by Abarth. The Fiat 500 ran as a rear-mounted engine from 1957 to 1975 after which it was retired. Brought back in 2007, this time it came with a front-engine instead of a rear one. And then there was the Fiat 850 coupe, alive between 1964 and 1973.
7 Chevrolet Corvair: America’s Sports Car?
With European sports cars taking over the market, America needed a sports car of its own. Chevrolet decided it had the answer, and so launched the Corvair. Now had Ralph Nader’s book “Unsafe at Any Speed” not made it to Press, things may just have panned differently for the 1960-1969 Corvair.
Sadly, the bad press it generated meant that people lost faith in it. Despite its tendency to oversteer, it was quite the cool car to drive with the rear-engine giving it a roomy interior. The two-speed transmission was pretty cool as well and made the Corvair America’s only mass-produced rear-mounted air-cooled-engine car.
6 BMW 700: The Rear-Engine Saviour
By the 1940s, BMW was floundering because of low sales and was very near bankruptcy. While not many people know, this was the time BMW was planning to merge with Daimler-Benz as a last resort to save itself and its nameplates.
Just then, they launched the BMW 700, a rear-engined car that carried a 697cc flat-twin engine – the kind they put in bikes almost a decade later. This car was spunky with a generous trunk in the front and plenty of spacious interiors. The rear-engine behind the backseat barely took space. People made a beeline for this one, and this car single-handedly saved the BMW and reversed its plummeting fortunes.
5 Tucker 48: Never Produced But All-American
With the Corvair already on the list, the Tucker 48 is one of the only two other remaining America rear-engines cars made. The war ended with the Detroit-Three still struggling with pre-war designs. At the time, Preston Tucker decided to launch the Tucker 48 – and it was a good car with plenty of tech and safety features.
It had a water-cooled, aluminum block engine mounted in the rear and also boasted fuel injection, a four-wheel independent suspension as well as disc brakes. Had it been launched, this could have taken America by storm. Sadly, a false stock fraud trial made sure the Tucker 48 never saw the light of day.
4 DMC DeLorean: Back To The Gullwings
The DMC DeLorean was a great-looking car with those iconic gullwing doors and its presence in the Back To The Future movies as Doc’s time machine. Sadly, while John DeLorean may have been the man behind many a good car, including the Pontiac GTO, his car was an epic failure.
The stainless steel used in the DeLorean made it far too heavy for its rear-mounted engine to handle it with any kind of speed. Had John DeLorean not gone down with his little bag of banned substances, the DMC may have still made it. Again, much like the Vega, also DeLorean’s baby, it didn’t.
3 Smart Fortwo: Swatch & Benz’s Offering
The Smart Fortwo was supposed to be a collaboration between Swatch and Volkswagen, but after the initial talks fell through; it became a joint baby of Swatch and Daimler-Benz. With a rear-mounted engine and a front cooling system, the Smart Fortwo was revolutionary in its size and performance in traffic-clogged cities.
Its ergonomic size meant two Smart Fortwos can be parked perpendicularly, in a parallel parking space meant for one car. The need of the day, the Smart Fortwo is currently in its third generation and has taken on Renault as a partner now. Now, it also comes in Cabriolet and EV formats, for better consumer choice.
2 Skoda Rapid: The Poor Man's Porsche
Today, Skoda is part of the Volkswagen group and the marque is known for making stylish but affordable cars. But the car we are talking about is the 1984 Skoda Rapid, a fastback coupe based on the rear-engined Skoda 130. The 1.2 to 1.3-liter engines managed just a little over 60 horses, but the lightness of the car made it go pretty fast, back in the day.
Some called it a poor man’s Porsche and compared to the other Skoda cars of its time; it did manage to look exotic. Alive till 1990, today these models are vaunted for their classic appeal – especially since they were also made in cabriolet style.
1 Subaru 360: Simply Not Acceptable
If there was ever a rear-engined car worse than the Ford Pinto, it was the Subaru 360. Honestly, while it met Japanese regulations of the Kei car (small car), it failed every American expectation ever. The rear-mounted engine was a 359cc one that farted 25 measly horses and 25 ft-lb torque, not enough to boil soup, let alone move a car with any semblance of speed.
The rear-hinged suicide doors were also pretty bad, with only sheet metal everywhere. It came in a four-speed manual, but honestly, it never really gained enough speed to get to the fourth gear, period. Once the "Not Acceptable" ratings came though, the Subaru 360 was finished in the US, permanently.