Re: FWD

["Ian Kerr" <ikerr@macromedia.com>]

>>1.  While Sir Alec Issigonis' Mini (another choice) was in 1959 the

>OK, I had all this stuff written in praise of the Fiat 128 and then saw
>Mark Battley's and Matthew Killick's posts in the next digest. Ditto and
>Bravo, Mark and Matt.

>>4.  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.

>I think this may be a provincial US view of this as I don't think the Civic
>was much of a force in Europe. ...

-Hate to step in late, but let's remember the early FWD cars of Citroen!
1930's?
-Transverse FWD was the Mini, and there is no doubt the Japanese were aware
of this car.

Talked to a Mitsubishi Motors engineer who said that transverse was more
efficient because the gears had lower loss than the ones needed for a
longitudinal drivetrain.

Not to mention the torque effects of longitudinal engines, etc.

Of course, saying all that, my car is longitudinally aligned

-Ian