FWD: who's on first?

[Will Owen <nashwill@yahoo.com>]

From #285, Jack Hagerty (among others) wrote:

>Scott,
>You are unforntunately incorrect on point #1 about Honda being the
first to go
>with a transverse FWD layout other than BL. In 68 Simca, then owned by
>Chrysler, introduced the 1100 in Europe and in 69 in the U.S. 

"Both of you, back to your automotive history books! The 1949 Saab 92
had
a transverse engine with an in-line transaxle, just like the Civic and
all of the legions of cars that Scott mentioned today. They made
something
like 40,000 of them over four years which is enough, I would think, to
establish it as a "production" run.

"Of course, it was only two cylinders and a two stroke..."

...as was the DKW "Front" of the '30s. In addition, this little beast
had a wooden body, not quite a monocoque, but a kind of punt
structure, like a Lancia Lambda made out of plywood. If this seems too
obscure, I've gotta tell you that I saw a roadster version of one of
these on a San Jose used car lot in 1968. They were asking about $750
for it, as against the $450 they wanted for the *very* used TR3.

Alec Issigonis wasn't trying to invent something utterly new. He was
trying to design the smallest car he could that would hold four
grownups, that would use mostly existing components, ride and handle
reasonably well, and sell for cheap and still make money. He failed
only on the very last point, though of course it did become profitable
after twenty years or so.

Will Owen
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