transvers front-wheel-drive

[<JHertzman@aol.com>]

In AD6-284 Scott Fisher, on his way to praising the 1973 Honda Civic, writes
"While Sir Alec Issigonis' Mini (another choice) was in 1959 the first car to
use the transverse FWD layout - - "

The estimable Alec (whose MG 1100 was the first fwd car I ever owned, while
the 164 is probably my last) was in fact beaten to the transverse FWD layout
by something over half a century. I hesitate to say anything was "the first",
but the earliest transverse-engined FWD car 'I' know of was the Christie,
built by John Walter Christie of the Christie Direct Action Motor Car Company
just after the turn of the century. He also somewhat later (1905) built what
was as far as I know the word's first twin-engined four-wheel-drive race-car,
beating John Cooper's Twin Mini by an appreciable tad, as well as beating both
of the twin-engined Alfas, various other twins, and a gaggle of four-wheel-
drive racers in one fell swoop. After backing off from the twin layout he went
on to build what was by virtue of its start in the 1907 French Grand Prix the
first transverse engined FWD Grand Prix car, before he deserted the car
business for an innovative career in tracked military vehicles.

Sir Alec still gets appreciable credit for 'firsts' which cannot be claimed by
Christie. The Mini was the first of this configuration I know of with an
inline engine (instead of a V4), the first to have a conventional differential
instead of the driver-controlled limited-slip arrangement, and the first to
have a geared transmission.

Later in the same essay Scott wrote " Virtually every automobile in the world
today owes its platform, layout, and execution to the transverse FWD setup
that the Civic, if not invented, then certainly proved in the automotive
world" in 1973. Early in 1996 I and others meandered around this territory on
and off digest with Matthew Killick who, citing just criticisms of the Mini,
Peugeot, and Renault variants, argued rather persuasively that the Fiat 128 of
1970 was the car which defined the modern FWD class. Scott's view may be
correct for the United States, but Matt convinced me for the bigger picture.

John