Re: Car of the centuries, fwd subset

[<JHertzman@aol.com>]

In AD6-287 Scott Fisher questions Matthew Killick' giving primacy to the Fiat
128, over the Mini, among setters of the transverse fwd model. My
understanding was that Matt considered the Fiat the car which brought all of
the salient features of the modern FWD car together without the brilliant but
occasionally flawed flights of fancy that Sir Alec indulged. The idea that
engine oil is a great gear lubricant was not Issigonis' finest insight. I came
to share Matt's prejudice much earlier, when my utterly enjoyable
Issigoniswagen died an untimely death due at least in part to a slurry of
transmission fragments finding its way to the crankshaft bearings. Enough was
gone that I briefly considered an engine swap, insinuating a complete rwd
Giulietta drive train into the MG Saloon, (despite the groans it would have
generated among MG Purists) but my wife persuaded me to buy a new Giulia Super
instead. Much simpler, and quite adequate. Always listen to your wife, when
she gives sensible advice. Anyhow- I think that Matt's standard, of giving the
laurel to the car that put it all together, needing no excuses, is reasonable
enough.

Scott went on to write "I'm also interested, by the way, in learned
dissertations on the French automobile industry." I would suggest "La France
et L'Automobile", subtitled "Contribution francais au developpement economique
et technique de l'automobilisme des origines a la deuxieme guerre mondiale",
by Charles W. Bishop, published by Editions M.-Th. Genin, Libraries
Techniques, Paris, 1971. It is a dissertation in the most literal sense, at
the Universite de Lyon. It, incidentally, does far more justice to Darracq,
A.L.F.A.'s predecessor company, than you will find in most Alfa sources. 

The whole who-did-the-first-transverse-engined-FWD argument actually has a
simple-enough  answer. If one accepts that for a single cylinder engine the
axis of the crankpin and the wristpin govern the assignment of directionality,
then Cugnot's 'Fardier', certainly the world's first motor vehicle, was
transverse-engined as well as front-wheel-drive. Some will argue that it was
not a "production" vehicle, but since it comprised the entire world production
of motor vehicle in its century that is picking a somewhat academic nit.

John