If you're not a Porsche fan, apologies for the last two weeks of rear-engine-ness. Lets move on to some mid-engine-ness this time. Think of a Lamborghini, and chances are you'll be thinking of the Gallardo, and the Murcielago and the Aventador, maybe even, the Diablo. Or if you are middle aged and slightly balding, then you'll be thinking of the Miura and the Countach. Remember anything before that? Nope, me neither. Mid-engined V12s, scissor doors and a pointy, aggressive, in-your-face styling has defined Lamborghini as a brand; and with very good reason.
You see, Lamborghini invented the mid-engined V12 super car, in the late '60s with the Miura. Or so they say. TV shows, magazines, car nerds all over the world proudly proclaim that Lamborghini invented the supercar, the first ever mid-engined V12, and one of the first to have a transverse layout for its transaxle. Not actually. That's not really true.
Lets go back many, many years, to the mid '30s. The World War II is just about to begin, and before Hitler decides to go invade Poland, he insists that Auto Union should beat every other manufacturer on track, and provides them huge financial help from the government. So Auto Union set to work, making the quickest car imaginable. They built and raced 4 cars, Type-A through to Type-D, between 1934 and 1938, and they were the undoubted winners, every single race. They were so fast, that there are rumors of drivers refusing to drive them flat out. Understandable, considering these were cars that could go well over 200 mph on a rough concrete banked oval, with tyres that are thinner than wheels on motorcycles these days. Scary, indeed.
The most terrifying has to be the Type-C; with a 6l V16, boosted with not one, but two Roots type 'chargers. It produced over 510bhp, at a time when the quickest road cars made 50bhp. Weighing less than 900 kg with the driver, these Auto Unions could reach speeds of 211 mph. That's quick by today's standards! That's faster than all the F1 cars! So, how is it significant? Well it was mid-engined. Probably one of the earliest to have the engine plonked behind the driver. Oh, and it was a chain drive. All those 500 horses went to the skinny wheels through a chain and sprocket and a live rear axle.
But that was a racing car, I hear you cry. Yes, I know. So lets move on to another racing car, and this was actually manufactured for road usage too! But before I reveal the name, let me give some history. Enzo Ferrari, had a habit of making very good cars. Specifically, very good race cars. In the late '50s and the early '60s, Ferrari was particularly dominant in endurance racing, such as Le Mans, as well as in the recently launched Formula 1 championship. However, Enzo wasn't really interested in selling cars to the public. He claimed he only did it to make enough money to make fast cars. So he decided to sell his passenger car division, and focus only on racing. Henry Ford II was very keen on buying the Ferrari brand name, and their road car division, and Ferrari and Ford agreed on the sale. Until, at the very last minute, Ferrari decided he didn't really want to sell it to Ford. So he walked away.
As you can guess, this didn't please Henry, who was perhaps hoping to impress his friends by doing some donuts in the (then) brand new Ferrari 275 GTB. So Ford decided to beat Ferrari at what he was best at; winning. Ford knew that they were not capable of building a dominant track machine, so they went to Lotus to help them. Colin Chapman, the founder thought it would be difficult, and asked for such a large sum of money, that Ford had to turn them down. They then approached another small British firm, who had recently built their own racing car for the Le Mans; Lola. The Lola GT used a Ford V8, slotted in behind the driver. Their attempt in 1963 was unsuccessful due to small technical problems, and Ford convinced Lola to build a better version of the GT for them. The GT40 was the result, and suffice to say it achieved what it set out to do. In 1966, '67, '68 and '69 the Ford GT won in Le Mans. That probably didn't please Ferrari too much.
Due to homologation reasons, and also to celebrate beating some Ferraris on track, Ford did make a few road legal versions of the GT40 for the public to buy. Though it is not usually considered as a production car, it was mid-engined and road legal, and two years ahead of the Miura.
There were a whole host of other similar racing machines, even before the Ford GT40, that were mid-engined, and their homologated variants can probably be excused on the basis of not being genuine road cars. The next car, however, cannot!
You see, Lamborghini invented the mid-engined V12 super car, in the late '60s with the Miura. Or so they say. TV shows, magazines, car nerds all over the world proudly proclaim that Lamborghini invented the supercar, the first ever mid-engined V12, and one of the first to have a transverse layout for its transaxle. Not actually. That's not really true.
Lets go back many, many years, to the mid '30s. The World War II is just about to begin, and before Hitler decides to go invade Poland, he insists that Auto Union should beat every other manufacturer on track, and provides them huge financial help from the government. So Auto Union set to work, making the quickest car imaginable. They built and raced 4 cars, Type-A through to Type-D, between 1934 and 1938, and they were the undoubted winners, every single race. They were so fast, that there are rumors of drivers refusing to drive them flat out. Understandable, considering these were cars that could go well over 200 mph on a rough concrete banked oval, with tyres that are thinner than wheels on motorcycles these days. Scary, indeed.
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| The Auto Union racing car. See what I mean about the tyres? Picture credit grandprixhistory.org |
The most terrifying has to be the Type-C; with a 6l V16, boosted with not one, but two Roots type 'chargers. It produced over 510bhp, at a time when the quickest road cars made 50bhp. Weighing less than 900 kg with the driver, these Auto Unions could reach speeds of 211 mph. That's quick by today's standards! That's faster than all the F1 cars! So, how is it significant? Well it was mid-engined. Probably one of the earliest to have the engine plonked behind the driver. Oh, and it was a chain drive. All those 500 horses went to the skinny wheels through a chain and sprocket and a live rear axle.
But that was a racing car, I hear you cry. Yes, I know. So lets move on to another racing car, and this was actually manufactured for road usage too! But before I reveal the name, let me give some history. Enzo Ferrari, had a habit of making very good cars. Specifically, very good race cars. In the late '50s and the early '60s, Ferrari was particularly dominant in endurance racing, such as Le Mans, as well as in the recently launched Formula 1 championship. However, Enzo wasn't really interested in selling cars to the public. He claimed he only did it to make enough money to make fast cars. So he decided to sell his passenger car division, and focus only on racing. Henry Ford II was very keen on buying the Ferrari brand name, and their road car division, and Ferrari and Ford agreed on the sale. Until, at the very last minute, Ferrari decided he didn't really want to sell it to Ford. So he walked away.
As you can guess, this didn't please Henry, who was perhaps hoping to impress his friends by doing some donuts in the (then) brand new Ferrari 275 GTB. So Ford decided to beat Ferrari at what he was best at; winning. Ford knew that they were not capable of building a dominant track machine, so they went to Lotus to help them. Colin Chapman, the founder thought it would be difficult, and asked for such a large sum of money, that Ford had to turn them down. They then approached another small British firm, who had recently built their own racing car for the Le Mans; Lola. The Lola GT used a Ford V8, slotted in behind the driver. Their attempt in 1963 was unsuccessful due to small technical problems, and Ford convinced Lola to build a better version of the GT for them. The GT40 was the result, and suffice to say it achieved what it set out to do. In 1966, '67, '68 and '69 the Ford GT won in Le Mans. That probably didn't please Ferrari too much.
The Ford GT40 winning at Le Mans.
Picture courtesy carstyling.ru
Picture courtesy carstyling.ru
Due to homologation reasons, and also to celebrate beating some Ferraris on track, Ford did make a few road legal versions of the GT40 for the public to buy. Though it is not usually considered as a production car, it was mid-engined and road legal, and two years ahead of the Miura.
There were a whole host of other similar racing machines, even before the Ford GT40, that were mid-engined, and their homologated variants can probably be excused on the basis of not being genuine road cars. The next car, however, cannot!
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