<VV> Bordering Comical...

[Charles Lee at Prop Per]

If the engine "belongs" in the front, why are (nearly) all true performance 
cars rear-engined (or at least mid-engined) ?

Had anyone noticed that the first American campaign for front-engined cars 
were "luxury cars" (Toronado, Eldorado) were not met well by the car-buying 
public, and that people opted for "normal" cars ?

Then I guess "they" then decided not to give us a choice, because the next 
time they tried to foist FWD on us, they gave us little choice, and all car 
were, all of a sudden, front-wheel-drive.  This limited the car buyers' 
choice, and eventually made FWD common, and therefore acceptable.

It's no different now, buyers (in 1960's) were spending a couple of grand on 
a new car, and were told that there just "might" be something wrong with the 
Corvair. Which car would you buy, assuming you knew as little as an average 
car buyer knows about cars ?

I think they realized that GM's real fault in 1960 was building a car that 
was different, and figured that "this time" the new configuration (FWD) 
would not be different, because everyone is going to making the same thing 
!!!

And now all you can find are front wheel drive cars, which for the most 
part, understeer, which is far easier to predict than oversteer for the 
(less than) average driver, right ?



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Ioanes" <mioanes at woh.rr.com>
To: "Secular" <rusecular at yahoo.com>
Cc: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2006 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: <VV> Bordering Comical...


>
> Subject: <VV> Bordering Comical...
>>snip<
>
>
>
>
>    Ford unleashed TV ads that featured an arrow with a moveable head. The 
> head was supposed to be the engine. When the head was at the front of the 
> arrow, it shot straight and true. When the head was moved to the back of 
> the arrow, it was erratic. This brilliant piece of advertising nonsense 
> implied that a front engine car was the right way, and the Ford way. A 
> rear engine car was the wrong way, and the Corvair way.
>
> Not saying this isn't true, but what I remember form the early 60's is 
> similar ads by Simca (a French  product marketed by Chrysler) saying the 
> same thing.  Amazingly, or humorously, they later introduced a 
> rear-engined car.  A neighbor had one of their older, front-engine, rear 
> drive cars and a friend's older sister had one of the rear-engine ones. 
> www.centuryinter.net/Simca/
>
> Mike Ioanes
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