<VV> Arrow Head in the Front

[Smitty Smith]

From: AeroNed at aol.com
  Three reasons for read/mid engine come to mind, balance, safety and 
visibility. Locating the engine over the drive wheels or close to them gets the 
weight where it can help traction the most.

If your driving an open car, you want the engine behind you for safety. If 
the engine pukes oil, coolant or fuel, you don't want it getting on you and 
being exposed to the potential hazard that would bring.

Not to mention, if the car is very small, the engine is the biggest thing in 
the car. Having it in front of the driver makes seeing around it difficult.

As for the claims in the Ford commercial, having the majority of the weight 
behind the vehicle center of pressure is directional unstable. That's true 
for a rocket, or car. Just the laws of Physics. Part of the reason a front 
spoiler was added to the Corvair was to reduce this instability.

Ned
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  Smitty Says:  OK Ned, Time for a reality check
  1.  The last time anyone had to worry about getting hurt by radiator steam or hot oil from a front engine was when the radiators had exposed caps on them
  2.  One of my daughters has a 3 cyl Metro.  I drove it and don't remember having any trouble seeing over the engine.  Of course, maybe you are talking about SMALL cars.
3.  I don't know about your Late model but instability is something I have never experienced in a Corvair.  I put an air dam on Spike but only for the sake of speed.  The car was rock solid at 120 without it.
  I respect your status as an engineer but don't run that old ploy of mixing apples (street cars) and oranges (race cars) to try to make a point.
  If the corvair had been made 30 feet long and 6 inches in diameter I can see where the rear engine would have a profound effect on it.  But it wasn't.  It is a car, and the engine and all other components are inside an envelope body.  Weight distribution as I remember it is 58x42 empty.  Not a huge difference.  Then load a couple of 200 lb bodies in the front seats and it improves from there.  
Are you now, or have you ever worked for Ford (or Nader)?    Damn I enjoyed this.  I will defend Corvairs against myths and half truths to the end.   CICBBRT