Mid-engined cars have been around forever, just about as long as the automobile itself, in fact. Manufacturers have used this configuration for racing since at least the early-1900s and it’s a very favorable engine layout for many reasons. Many people like their engines up front where they can keep an eye on them, but a mid-mounted engine offers great advantages for weight and balance, as well as for minimizing the number of parts by keeping all the action confined to one small area.

The mid-engined car has been produced in a wide variety of makes and models throughout the years. No matter what your style is, there’s probably a mid-engined option for you out there somewhere. So what if you get a little understeer on hard acceleration? The usage of mid-engine setups remains highly popular because of its many advantages, especially on smaller-sized cars that just want to zip around tight corners.

Larger vehicles tend to respond poorly to the aft movement of the center of gravity, but smaller cars looking to stay light and nimble stand to gain tremendous performance increases with a mid-engine layout. This engine setup is embedded into competition racing of all types and is used in some of the coolest cars ever made.

But it's also been used as a gimmick on some of the biggest hunks of junk ever built. At both ends of the spectrum lay piles of cars that define the layout in its best and worst forms.

18 No - Ferrari Dino 308 GT4

The world progresses in stages, and each geographical region is rolling along at more-or-less its own pace. Europe is, in some respects, about five years ahead of us in the aesthetic department, especially back in the day, and they just couldn’t wait to usher in the 1980s. This ugly Ferrari’s done nothing but mess up all over the face of a legend since the day it first fired up. This little, green dart was cutting-edge in 1975, sure, and everybody probably had to have one. But in today’s world, you could park this thing next to a Pinto and almost confuse the two. If you’re going to have a Ferrari, have a Ferrari. If you want a Pinto with nifty badging, get a Dino.

17 Yes - Ford GT

There’s no arguing with 647 horsepower, 550 ft-lbs of torque and a 216 mph top speed. And you’d almost expect something like that from a machine that looks like this. With a power-to-weight ratio somewhere in between the Ferarri 488GTB and the McLaren 675LT, the Ford GT is a legend in and of itself.

But that’s not even the best part about it.

The best part is the fact that Ford was actually able to outdo one of their most legendary race cars in a contemporary package that acknowledges the GT-40’s legacy so aggressively. You almost want the GT more than the original GT-40 racer. The mid-mounted engine provides torque for days as well as a smile that's plastered to your face the entire time you’re sitting in the driver’s seat.

16 No - Pontiac Fiero GT

You know there’s a problem with the Fiero when the positive reviews come from guys that call it things like “the poor man’s Corvette” and attribute it to performance characteristics like “agile cornering.” Don’t listen to this guy, he’s the same jabroney that also calls his 1988 Fiero “the first domestic mass-produced sports car.” (Really, guy?) His car, the Fiero, was supposed to probe different driveline configurations as Pontiac experimented with the mid-engine design, but they never managed to match up the components quite right. The Muncie four-speed worked great in muscle cars, but tended to choke the 170-horsepower Fiero from feeling at all sporty, especially on even lightweight hills.

15 Yes - Ferrari LaFerrari

One thing a lot of people don’t always appreciate when they look at a Ferrari is their uncanny ability to skirt a dangerously slim style line between top-tier supercar and cheesy Hot Wheels concept. After casting your gaze upon those wild body lines for so many decades as they’ve slowly evolved, it’s easy to forget just how ridiculously wild and aggressive the LaFerrari's body styling really is. Even if you’re not completely sold on the hyper-styling, those 949 horses and over 660 ft-lbs of torque do make decent consolation prizes. Ferrari uses a parallel-drive hybrid system with electric traction motors that give the internal combustion engine an extra 161 horsepower, to boot. This car is literally able to hit 60 mph before you can introduce yourself at an AA meeting.

14 No - Toyota MR2 Spyder

The MR2 Spyder was somewhat ground-breaking when it was released into the market in 1999. The prior two generations seemed to find a warm spot amidst the loving ownership of many tuners—plus, it was Toyota.

The distinctions between the earlier versions and the cars that came out at the turn of the century are highly significant, although truth be told, this isn’t a terribly bad little car.

It was lighter and had a better power-to-weight ratio than its biggest competitor, the Mazda Miata, and stood ready to prove itself. Unfortunately, they weren't quite seen as the Miata contender they were designed to be and the MR2 never became as popular as Toyota envisioned.

13 Yes - Ferrari 488 GTB

Did Ferrari invent the mid-engine racing car? Absolutely not. Did they tirelessly refine the design until it was fine-tuned into an insurmountable road weapon? Pretty much, yes. Ferrari is not without their blunders, but hey, everyone who makes cars long enough is bound to brew up a jalopy every now and then. Yet to this day, Ferrari has a very good grasp on their craft and confidently opened up a new chapter in the history of the V8 engine with the Grand Turismo Berlinetta. The twin-turbocharged, 3.9-liter V8 smoothly delivers 661 horsepower with state-of-the-art computer modulation accenting the performance trim to keep less-experienced drivers on the road where they belong. Everybody can be a champion in a GTB.

12 No - Fiat X1/9

Sometimes, hindsight will wash way the sands of time just enough off a car to reveal a diamond in the rough. Certain cars that were released to ridicule and chastising have, for whatever reason, emerged as superstars decades later when we're finally able to see the genius in them.

The X1/9 from Fiat is no such example, though.

And although some people may have had that sentiment when they stocked up on their Fiat inventory, time was only to reveal an obscure automobile that nobody really cared much about. The way you can tell if a car is a wonder-machine or a rolling wreck is by the way it’s sold. If you can get two pristine X1/9s for the price of what one car should cost, something is definitely wrong.

11 Yes - Ford GT-40

The GT-40 is so legendary that it’s permeated our subconscious minds to a depth that makes it vaguely recognizable, even to non-car folks. It was built to win long-distance races in some of the harshest environments you can subject a race chassis to. It’s hailed as Ford’s greatest supercar, and that designation isn’t granted lightly. The product of the Shelby-Ford team-up was a Ferrari eater and a Porsche beater, and the car has been battle-proven against the world’s best race cars from the best manufacturers in the hottest competitions. If you thought owning a GT would make you the man, just imagine what the “40” suffix could do for you.

10 No - BMW M1

There is likely a distinct and conspicuous line separating the opposing camps, both favoring and chastising a machine like this. BMW fanatics and purists may point to a variety of unique facts that make the M1 special, and it is a special car, and indeed a very special car (as long as it's in someone else’s garage). The super-rare car was a cancer that caused an internal storm at BMW that ended up costing many careers and losing BMW the favor of public opinion. Intended as a silhouette car, it was supposed to be a tribute to their racing legacy, packaged into a high-performance road car that would sit in garages across the nation in no time. None of what BMW anticipated happened, and the M1 wasn’t cool then, and it’s not cool now.

9 Yes - CERV I

Designed by racear driver Zora Arkus-Duntov in 1959, this insectoid monster debuted at the Riverside International Speedway under the official designation CERV I (Chevrolet Experimental Racing Vehicle).

They claim its primary function was to act as a test-bed for engineers to “perform direct visual studies” of the effects of amplified driving conditions.

What all that really meant was someone talked the boss-man into letting him build a roll bar around a seat with small-block motor mounts in the back for holding 350 horses about two inches above the tarmac. It would be that same, lightweight, 283cid motor running 14-second quarter miles in the Vega that was to now power a 1,600 -pound chassis with a 96-inch wheelbase; not much room for anything besides man and motor on this machine.

8 No - MG TF

You’ll find the occasional pocket of resistance in favor of this little car—MG has had some cool little wonders in the past, after all—but this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, one of them. In fact, you should get fined for driving one of these (like with a really big ticket), that’s how bad this car is. Or it could be that you already got too many tickets and your other car got impounded and that’s why you’re even driving the MG in the first place. Regardless of the reason, it’s not like it’s a terrible car, it's just something along the Cadillac Catera lines, as in something that shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

7 Yes - Norwood 330 P4 575

This Ferrari 330 P4 replica has a 575M Maranello V-12 and takes its builder Norwood a year to produce. Aluminum body panels are hand-fabricated over a tubular space frame and accuracy is down to the very last rivet.

The 5.7-liter V-12 was hand-picked from the Ferrari engine stable because of its reliability and the inclusion of their variable-geometry intake manifold which allows the ECU to control the valves and optimize power.

Behind that bad-boy, Norwood put a Porsche G50 five-speed transaxle. The close-ratio gearbox uses an aluminum flywheel and carbon fiber-titanium clutch assembly to hook everything together. The resultant package is almost literally a mid-engine to die for (if somebody else were to do the dying, of course).

6 No - Renault Clio V6

The Renault Clio is one of those cars that gets a bad rep for just trying to be itself. If you look at it objectively, it’s a tiny little car with 230 horsepower in a 2,900-pound, rear-wheel hatchback. Plus, they put a six-speed manual in it. It has rainy-parking-lot-fun written all over it. But at the end of the day it’s kinda like the WRX, a great little car in many respects but just because you run overboost, that doesn’t make you the speed racer you think you are. So this little speed racer is either a heavily-modified tuner, a heavily modified rally car, or next to bone-stock as you sit there and try to brag about a 6.7-second 0-60 mph time.

5 Yes - Gulf Miller Special

Here’s a mid-engined model that may seldom, if ever, even come to mind these days. As decades pass by, even the most legendary racing cars drift away into the obscurity of densely-packed racing history.

This car was commissioned by the Gulf Oil Company in a quantity of three after seeing a similar car debut at Indianapolis as the first-ever with a mid-engine configuration.

Sure, the side tanks proved to be super dangerous when (not if) an accident happened, but they got rid of those in 1941 (not before a few tragedies here and there, of course). This is a pre-war, mid-engine racer that’s just about all motor, and 100% all-race. (I mean, come on, this is from when wheel spokes were still cool!)

4 Yes - Toyo Trophy Truck

This mid-engined masterpiece isn’t something you’d likely see pop through your brain as you thought of cars you’d do unspeakable things for. But let me tell you, friend, this is a serious machine that you should want to do unspeakable thinks for. Forget Bigfoot, forget mud-boggers, and forget that F-550 crew-cab toy-hauler your neighbor has that you think is so tough. These completely custom trophy trucks are built to punch it out like nothing else on the planet. The 800-horsepower V8 engines rocket these trucks across the rough desert floor at over 100 mph while over five-feet of combined long-travel suspension between the front and rear axles float the truck effortlessly across literally whatever terrain you can throw at it.

3 No - Mosler Consulier Tanga LX

When you think of the "cool" and what all it signifies culturally, what does the word really mean to you? Some people have proclivities for speed and performance while some people love their carbon fiber and turbochargers. The two can be completely separate, or bundled into the same package, though.

In the case of the Mosler, they were bundled together all the way back in the 1980s!

The Mosler is dubbed by some as a "forgotten supercar” that featured advanced design features and forced induction in the mid-80s when we were still looking around wondering where our Challengers and Chargers went. Everything about it sounds revolutionary, right? In many ways, it was, but that still didn’t change the fact that nobody wanted them back then, and nothing’s changed since.

2 Yes - Hennessy Venom F5 (Smokin’)

The Venom F5 gets its name from the most powerful tornado on the Fujita tornado-rating scale. Coincidentally, this speed range just so happens to match up with the benchmark-speed the car is intended to be able to reach. The fastest production cars in the world are reaching insanely high speeds, and it’s never long before another record is broken, usually only by a few miles per hour. The next big milestone is the 300-mph mark, and the F5 is a car positioning itself for a legitimate shot. That being the case, if a regular old Joe like yourself ever happened into one of these things somehow, you’d be the man everywhere you went.

1 No - Porsche 914

I took a stab at some of Ferrari’s unfortunate garbage, and now its Porsche’s time to turn the other cheek. Bearing the prestigious Porsche nameplate should require cars to adhere to the standards of automotive excellence that we expect from top-level performance manufacturers.

Technically, the 914 was a VW-Porsche collaboration, and that line gets quite foggy due to some unfortunate events surrounding the business deal.

But it’s the unwritten rule of nature that any collaboration has to bear the name of the engine. As such, when you slap an 80-horsepower, air-cooled Volkswagen engine into the middle of a Porsche chassis, you shouldn't get to call it a Porsche.

Sources: roadandtrack.com, caranddriver.com, wired.com, and motor1.com.