Cheap, Mid engine, Rear Wheel Drive who's the best

[ForcedInd26]

so back to the basic question would any of you consider an fd rx7 a mid engined car?

[ForcedInd26]

i thought

mid engined- the engine behind the driver, and not on a transaxle
rear engined- sit on the rear transaxle
front engined- fixed mostly over the front axle

[aNOBLEman]

mid-engine - the engine is located between the front and rear axle lines
rear engine - the engins is located with most behind the rear axle line
front engine - the engine is located with some over the front axle line

Pretty much sums it up.

This is the best definition of engine placements, ForcedInd26. If needed mid-rear and mid-front would be acceptable, but I would agree with Matra in that keeping it simple is best in most cases.

[clutch-monkey]

^ yeah not forgetting referring to it as mid-rear might get people confused with mid engined, rear wheel drive terminology

[TheScrutineer]

Offtopic, but there is a rumour that the mid engined Porsche Cayman is purposely sold with a lesser powered engine than 911s because it would outperform Porche's flagship model.

[clutch-monkey]

i never understood that. the GT2 laps the same time as the mid engined carrera GT, what would they expect to do with a cayman?
outperform base 911's i could understand, but flagship model? lol.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Offtopic, but there is a rumour that the mid engined Porsche Cayman is purposely sold with a lesser powered engine than 911s because it would outperform Porche's flagship model.

Marketing post whoring I say.

Obviously a well tuned (not talking about the after market) Cayman with a powerful engine could outperform many 911 versions.
In the same way a well tuned 911, the GT2 is as fast as the carbon fiber Carrera GT (which is also 5 year older).

As with kids wondering about R34s with NOS stuff, yes, they will outrun an Enzo. And guess what? if you put that stuff in the Enzo it will outrun them once again (while exploding in the distance).

[TheScrutineer]

But aren't rear engined Porsches ultimately flawed? I know that rear engined cars have great traction. I've always thought that the only reason it works is because of Porsche engineering genius. And changing the engine layout for a future 911, it just would not be a 911 would it.

[Ferrer]

But aren't rear engined Porsches ultimately flawed? I know that rear engined cars have great traction. I've always thought that the only reason it works is because of Porsche engineering genius. And changing the engine layout for a future 911, it just would not be a 911 would it.

You should drive an italian car. Cars don't have flaws, they have character.

[TheScrutineer]

I considered buying an old Alfa but it is a risk I'm not going to take!

[Ferrer]

I considered buying an old Alfa but it is a risk I'm not going to take!

You should. Maybe not now, but in the future buy one.

[pimento]

Offtopic, but there is a rumour that the mid engined Porsche Cayman is purposely sold with a lesser powered engine than 911s because it would outperform Porche's flagship model.

Marketing post whoring I say.

Obviously a well tuned (not talking about the after market) Cayman with a powerful engine could outperform many 911 versions.
In the same way a well tuned 911, the GT2 is as fast as the carbon fiber Carrera GT (which is also 5 year older).

They say that because the 3.4 that the 996 Carrera in 1997 is apparently less powerful than the 3.4 that the Cayman S has. No word on torque, power delivery or emmisions regs as far as I know though. Also, something along the lines of the Cayman S doesn't have an LSD because it'd be faster than a 911 if it did. Tinfoil hats everyone, it's conspiracy theory time!

[TheScrutineer]

Think about it. On paper a mid engined car has more advantages than a rear engined one. But the 911 is a legend that Porsche does not want to destroy.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Think about it. On paper a mid engined car has more advantages than a rear engined one. But the 911 is a legend that Porsche does not want to destroy.

ok then an F430 could be faster than the 599 GTB...oh wait, it is!
What can't happen is that a similarly priced car outruns the slightly pricer one.
No one at Ferrari will tell you that the MC12 is faster and more powerful than the Enzo, even if they know it's so (damn, they designed it so). Let alone admitting the GranTurismo Trofeo is faster than the F430 Challenge with at least another year or two for the latter before of being updated with the 458.

The Cayman is on paper an excellent car and quite a disappointment on the street. For as good as it can be, it always misses something, being more power, or more personality.
So if the plan was not to harm the 911, they ended up wasting the opportunity of building one of the best decently priced sportscar.
Even the Boxter used to be more popular before of the Cayman.

Aston Martin could have created just a big mess with all those similarly looking and performing cars from the V8 and DB9 up to the DBS and V12, but they managed to differentiate them with first of all different prices, and also balancing the number of cars available with those actually requested, generating more and more interest for the next reveal.
At the end of the day AM is selling relatively plenty of cars.
Porsche raised a lot of attention with the Cayman even before it was unveiled, but right after that, it just felt in the drawer of forgotten things.

All the 911 updates, the Cayenne and Panamera became the only target of the brand.
Poor marketing from this point of view I'd say.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Directly from the Lexus LFA press release.

Front midship engine.