In automotive engineering , a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles , but behind the front axle.
58-541: The Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster , sometimes simply known as the Leyland Worldmaster , was a mid-underfloor-engined single-decker bus or single-decker coach chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1954 and 1979. Succeeding the Leyland Royal Tiger underfloor-engined heavyweight single-decker bus or single-decker coach chassis which sold more than 6,000 from 1950 to 1956 was
116-454: A decade of high-mileage use, instead they were fitted with new Plaxton bodies in 1968 and 1970, the latter coach is preserved. CIÉ did the same with its 17 WT class ERT2 touring coaches in 1970–71, removing the seven-year-old CIÉ/Ogle Associates bodies and sending the refitted chassis to Belgium where they received new Van Hool Vistadome bodies, as the WVH class they continued to serve CIÉ well,
174-486: A difficult call, but Leyland answered it with the Royal Tiger Worldmaster, it retained a substantial steel ladder-frame chassis dropped in the wheelbase and overhangs and arched over the axles to which operators could fit a body of their choice. A Leyland O680H horizontal engine (the smaller-volume 0.600H was optional but rarely chosen) was mounted at the middle of the chassis frame, driving back through
232-531: A frame derived from the export Tiger Cub. A right-hand-drive version went to New Zealand, Australia and to Doncaster Corporation who took ten manual RTC1/1 in 1965 and ten semi-automatic RTC1/2 in 1967/8 in both cases with dual door Charles H Roe 45-seat bodies, the PSU3 Leopard was more closely related to this model than the preceding L1/L2. The PSU4 Leopard replaced both the Royal Tiger Cub and
290-492: A front-engine or rear-engine car. When the engine is in front of the driver, but fully behind the front axle line, the layout is sometimes called a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, or FMR layout instead of the less-specific term front-engine; and can be considered a subset of the latter. In-vehicle layout, FMR is substantially the same as FR, but handling differs as a result of the difference in weight distribution. Some vehicles could be classified as FR or FMR depending on
348-594: A picture of the G230 ;S on the cover of Road & Track magazine and convinced Ghia to build another car using a similar design. The result was the Ghia 450 SS , continuing Ghia's collaboration with Chrysler by using that company's recently introduced 273-cubic-inch (4.5 L) "LA" V8 engine with 235 hp (175 kW). So many of the car's parts and systems came from the Plymouth Barracuda that
406-414: A pneumocyclic semi-automatic gearbox to an overhead-worm rear axle, steering was via a worm and nut mechanism. Sales ran from 1954 to 1979 by which time more than 20,000 had been built making it Leyland's most successful bus. In comparison, by 1985 approximately 17,000 Leyland Atlanteans had been built, Leyland Leopard sales terminated in 1983 after deliveries totalled over 12,000. In global terms only
464-458: A problem in some cars, but this issue seems to have been largely solved in newer designs. For example, the Saleen S7 employs large engine-compartment vents on the sides and rear of the bodywork to help dissipate heat from its very high-output engine. Mid-engined cars are more dangerous than front-engined cars if the driver loses control - although this may be initially harder to provoke due to
522-405: A progressive and controllable manner as the tires lose traction. Super, sport, and race cars frequently have a mid-engined layout, as these vehicles' handling characteristics are more important than other requirements, such as usable space. In dedicated sports cars, a weight distribution of about 50% front and rear is frequently pursued, to optimise the vehicle's driving dynamics – a target that
580-633: A rival design house . De Tomaso never managed to run Ghia profitably and in 1970 he sold his shares to the Ford Motor Company . During this transition period, Ghia had partial involvement in the De Tomaso Pantera , a high-performance, mid-engined car using a Ford V8 . From then on, the Ghia studios were an integral part of Ford of Europe 's styling operation – producing mostly concept cars although some production models were styled by
638-401: A vehicle safer since an accident can occur if a vehicle cannot stay in its own lane around a curve or is unable to stop quickly enough. Mid-engine design is also a way to provide additional empty crush space in the front of the automobile between the bumper and the windshield, which can then be designed to absorb more of the impact force in a frontal collision in order to minimize penetration into
SECTION 10
#1732797832526696-783: A version of the Worldmaster with front-vertical engine, but this was discontinued after the 1962 merger with AEC in favour of the stronger-selling AEC Kudu . Later the Guy Victory J and the Albion Clydesdale were available for this market sector. A notable use of Worldmaster units was in two BUT 9641T trolleybus chassis, formerly London Transport Q1 class vehicles, that the Santander Trolleybus company rebuilt to 11-metre (36 ft 1 + 1 ⁄ 8 in) length with extended front overhang. Eventually
754-651: Is an Italian automobile design and coachbuilding firm, established by Giacinto Ghia and Gariglio as "Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio". The headquarters are located at Corso Guglielmo Marconi, 4, Turin . The company is currently owned by Ford Motor Company and focused on the European market through Ford's subsidiary in the region . Through the years, Ghia has produced many bodies for several automobile manufacturers such as Alfa Romeo , Chrysler , Ferrari , Fiat , Ford, Jaguar , and Volkswagen . Ghia initially made lightweight aluminium-bodied cars, achieving fame with
812-408: Is typically only achievable by placing the engine somewhere between the front and rear axles. Usually, the term "mid-engine" has been primarily applied to cars having the engine located between the driver and the rear drive axles. This layout is referred to as rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive , (or RMR) layout. The mechanical layout and packaging of an RMR car are substantially different from that of
870-559: The Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 , winning Mille Miglia (1929). Between the world wars, Ghia designed special bodies for Alfa Romeo , Fiat , and Lancia , one of the most famous was the Fiat 508 Balilla sports coupe (1933). The factory was rebuilt at Via Tomassi Grossi, after being demolished in an air raid during World War II (1943). After Ghia's death (1944), the company was sold to Mario Boano and Giorgio Alberti. The Ghia-Aigle subsidiary
928-704: The B21 and B52s not proving strong sellers, the rear-engined Leyland Tiger amounting to one demonstrator, and the B82 Ranger comprised 34 chassis, one 12 m (39 ft 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) long and the rest 10 m (32 ft 9 + 3 ⁄ 4 in), all of which were sold to CUTCSA of Montevideo, Uruguay (a major Olympic and Worldmaster customer) who built their own bodies for them. [REDACTED] Media related to Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster at Wikimedia Commons Mid-engine design The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered
986-580: The Edsel car, and many other coachbuilders made pan-continental names bodying the Worldmaster, DAB in particular, able to respond in 1959 to a short-notice order from Poland's state tourism authority, became favoured by and eventually taken over by Leyland. Other globally notable coachbuilders to body Worldmasters include Ha'argaz and Merkavim in Israel, Jonckheere , Van Hool , Marcopolo , Custom Coaches and New Zealand Motor Bodies . One noteworthy customer of
1044-533: The Fiat 2300 -based Ghia G230 S. Unlike the Fiat 2300 Coupé, also designed and bodied by Ghia, the two-seater G230S was built on a tubular spaceframe which was designed and built by specialists Gilco. Four examples were built, two coupés and two convertibles. Ghia's owner Luigi Segre had pushed for the creation of this car, but after his sudden and untimely death the G230 S never entered production. However, in 1965 film and television producer Burt Sugarman saw
1102-642: The Ford Laser , Fairmont, Fairlane and Telstar ). One notable exception to this convention was the Scorpio model in the United Kingdom, which was essentially a rebadged Granada Mk3, slotting in above the Ghia in the model lineup. This lasted until the major facelift of 1994, when the Granada name was dropped and replaced by Scorpio for all variants, at which point the Ghia model resumed its position at
1160-585: The Ikarus 260 and 280 , Bedford SB (45,000 over thirty-eight years) ‘Old Look’ and "fishbowl" GMC single-deckers (around 40,000 each), and the Mercedes-Benz O303 (38,018 over 18 years) beat the Worldmaster for overall sales. The Worldmaster was an unequivocal success for Leyland and an aptly named model. Leyland coded the Worldmaster RT, export versions were prefixed E, unless they had
1218-545: The Imperial Crown limousines (whose notable owners included Jackie Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller ), and others. There are even a few Ghia-bodied Ferraris . Ghia also participated in the short-lived Dual-Ghia venture. Production by Ghia was always in very low numbers, giving the company's products even greater exclusivity than those of the other Italian coachbuilders. In June 1953, Pierre Lefaucheux , Renault 's chairman, requested Carrozzeria Ghia assistance with
SECTION 20
#17327978325261276-607: The Middle East (notably Israel ), the Caribbean and Continental Europe , both Eastern and Western bloc. Very few Worldmasters were sold in the United Kingdom . Glasgow Corporation took 30 RT3/1 from 1956 with Weymann body frames finished by the corporation's skilled tram-builders over the next two years. Halifax Corporation took ten with complete Weymann bodies in the same year. Other than these two batches,
1334-588: The Renault Dauphine . In 1953, Boano left for Fiat, the factory moved to via Agostino da Montefeltro, and Luigi Segre took over. Ghia then brought in Pietro Frua , appointing Frua as head of Ghia Design (1957–60), designing the Renault Floride . After Segre's death in 1963, Ghia was sold to Ramfis Trujillo in 1965, who in turn sold the company in 1967 to Alejandro de Tomaso , owner of
1392-604: The 1950s and 1960s, e.g. the AEC Reliance . The Ferrari Mondial is to date the only successful example of a true mid-engined convertible with seating for 4 and sports car/supercar performance. A version of the Lotus Evora with a removable roof panel is anticipated but no definite date is known. Like any layout where the engine is not front-mounted and facing the wind, the traditional "engine-behind-the-passengers" layout makes engine cooling more difficult. This has been
1450-504: The 1980s. In India, Portugal and Spain examples even had double-deck bodies fitted. Almost all markets produced their own styles and makes of coachwork, for example Casaro of Italy produced a Ghia -styled coach on LERT2 with a flamboyant grille, ribbed anodised-aluminium skirt panels and large tail fins. This was reproduced as Matchbox Toys number 40, "Leyland Royal Tiger Coach". Ayats in Spain produced an LERT1 whose frontal aspect resembled
1508-765: The Ghia name became Ford's top trim-level in its mainstream model range. The trend began in Europe and North America ( Mustang II , Granada , Capri , Cortina , Escort , and later Fiesta , Sierra , Sierra Sapphire, Orion , Scorpio , Mondeo , Focus all had Ghia trim levels), but soon spread worldwide, particularly to the South American (with the Argentinian Ford Falcon and Taunus, the Brazilian Ford Del Rey and versions of Escort, Focus and Mondeo) and Asia Pacific markets (with
1566-514: The Israeli-bodied variants (both Ha'argaz and Merkavim) was the ITB of Bucharest , SR Romania , which took delivery of multiple buses in 1968–1969; this was seen symbolical of Romanian defiance against Soviet policies at the time. Rhodesian Railways specified a 6x2 version of the Worldmaster with Leyland-Albion non-reactive suspension for the rear bogie. By 1960 Leyland South Africa developed
1624-690: The L1/L2 Leopard by 1968. By the mid-1970s Leyland were losing global bus and truck sales, particularly to Mercedes-Benz , Scania and Volvo , and tied-down by the dead weight of the British Leyland car division, no cash was available for an updated replacement for the Worldmaster. It was replaced by the Leyland Leopard in 1979, the last Worldmasters were bodied in the early 1980s and some are still in service. Later export-only Leyland single deckers were to find much less success,
1682-568: The PSU3 and 5 Leopards relegated the Worldmaster to markets requiring very heavy-duty chassis. Australia and New Zealand gradually converted to the Leopard from the first half of the 1960s whilst Worldmasters continued to dominate sales in the Nordic areas of Europe until at least 1971 but thereafter even Norway and Finland took to the Leopard (Sweden preferring its own Scania and Volvo chassis). From
1740-517: The Spanish Empire for their former Uruguayan territories) family of bodies while COTSIR its units 18 and 95 rebodied by.Carrocerias "La Victoria" (The Victory Bodyworks) in a model of body named "Ñandu Metropolitano" (Metropolitan Rhea) followed years latter by an in-house modification of units 39,68 and 90 A 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) wheelbase version of the Worldmaster with 0.680H engine, five-speed gearbox and two-speed rear-axle with
1798-547: The bus stayed in service until 1982. MTT 21 is now preserved in original livery as a travelling museum , Shark in a Bus containing a preserved 5 m (16 ft 4 + 7 ⁄ 8 in) Great White Shark. Many former Australian Public Transport Commission and State Transport Authority Worldmasters upon withdrawal, were rebodied by private operators including Brisbane Bus Lines , Deanes Coaches , Delwood Coaches , Fearne's Coaches , Menai Bus Service , Toongabbie Transport, Ventura Bus Lines and Westbus up until
Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster - Misplaced Pages Continue
1856-471: The car's bespoke nature meant an astronomically high price and when production ended in 1963 only 25 (or 26) cars had been built. The car's 6,277 cc (383 cu in) Chrysler V8 has 340 hp (254 kW) SAE, and suspension and transmission parts were also hand-picked from Chrysler's production line. Both the front and the rear seats consist of separate buckets. At the 1963 Turin Show , Ghia showed
1914-521: The case of the Ferrari FF taking power from both ends of the crankshaft with two separate gearboxes. These cars use a traditional engine layout between driver and rear drive axle. Typically, they're simply called MR; for mid-rear (engined), or mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout cars. These cars use mid-ship, four-wheel-drive , with an engine between the axles. These cars are "mid-ship engined" vehicles, but they use front-wheel drive , with
1972-420: The earliest cars came with a Barracuda manual with some pages crossed out. The 450 SS used the same design language as the smaller G230 S, but its hand beaten steel panels sat on a more traditional and sturdier ladder frame. Unlike the smaller car, the 450 SS was a 2+2 design, offering vestigial rear seat accommodation. It was only built as a two-door roadster, with a standard hardtop included. Over
2030-519: The engine in front of the driver. It is still treated as an FF layout, though, due to the engine's placement still being in the front of the car, contrary to the popular belief that the engine is placed in front of the rear axle with power transferred to the front wheels (an RMF layout). In most examples, the engine is longitudinally mounted rather than transversely as is common with FF cars. Ghia Carrozzeria Ghia SpA (established 1916 in Turin )
2088-413: The engine placed between the driver and the front axle. This layout, similar to the above FMR layout, with the engine between driver and the front axle, adds front-wheel drive to become a four-wheel drive. An engineering challenge with this layout is getting the power to the front wheels past the engine - this would normally involve raising the engine to allow a propshaft to pass under the engine, or in
2146-562: The factory-installed engine (I4 vs I6). Historically most classical FR cars such as the Ford Models T and A would qualify as an FMR engine car. Additionally, the distinction between FR and FMR is a fluid one, depending on the degree of engine protrusion in front of the front axle line, as manufacturers mount engines as far back in the chassis as possible. Not all manufacturers use the Front-Mid designation. These cars are RWD cars with
2204-534: The firm – the most notable being the Ford Fiesta Mk1 in 1976, which was penned by Ghia's Tom Tjaarda . Aside from this, the most publicly visible sign of Ford's ownership of Ghia has been its use of the name to denote the luxury trim level of its European models for many years (below). After the Dual-Ghia project had ended, the more up-to-date Ghia L6.4 appeared in 1961. Fewer Mopar parts were used, but
2262-439: The fore and aft weight distribution by other means, such as putting the engine in the front and the gearbox and battery in the rear of the vehicle. Another benefit comes when the heavy mass of the engine is located close to the back of the seats. It makes it easier for the suspension to absorb the force of bumps so the riders feel a smoother ride. But in sports cars, the engine position is once again used to increase performance and
2320-521: The front tires in braking the vehicle, with less chance of rear-wheel lockup and less chance of a skid or spin out. If the mid-engine vehicle is also rear-drive the added weight on the rear tires can also improve acceleration on slippery surfaces, providing much of the benefit of all-wheel-drive without the added weight and expense of all-wheel-drive components. The mid-engine layout makes ABS brakes and traction control systems work better, by providing them more traction to control. The mid-engine layout may make
2378-688: The idea and the project was dropped by 1962–3 as it had proved unprofitable. For many markets in Western Europe the LOPSUC1 Tiger Cub was underpowered and the LCRT3 Worldmaster too heavy, thus in 1960 the 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) wheelbase Royal Tiger Cub LRTC was launched for 10-metre (32 ft 9 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) bodies with 0.600H engine and option of either synchromesh or Pneumocyclic transmission. Worldmaster-type axles and ten-stud wheels were used in
Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster - Misplaced Pages Continue
2436-505: The last examples being retired in 2002, examples of the WVH class are also preserved. Some former Glasgow Worldmasters were sold to Australia in the early 1970s, extended to 11 m (36 ft 1 + 1 ⁄ 8 in), and rebodied. Egged in Israel rebodied 40 buses in the early 1980s, and named them "MOLEDET". MTT (Metropolitan Transport Trust) in Perth , Western Australia, rebodied their 1957 Worldmaster, fleet number 21, in 1967,
2494-419: The low ground-clearance frame, prefixed C, designed for paved-road markets which required lower step heights, this had a different method of spring attachment to give the lower height. Left-hand drive Worldmasters were either LERT or LCRT, to tabulate the basic range: Operators in every inhabited continent bought Worldmasters, big markets were western and southern Africa , Australia , South and Central America,
2552-451: The mid-1970s West Africa was the last stronghold of substantial Worldmaster orders, Lagos Municipality in particular favouring the type, using Marshall and Willowbrook dual-door bodies to an outline resembling British Electric Traction standard Leyland Leopards but with bigger tyres, greater ground clearance and an inherent toughness of character no Leopard ever possessed. Ellen Smith found its two Worldmaster RT3/2s too good to scrap after
2610-582: The mid-1980s. Many operated into the 2000s and a few were still in service in 2014. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Uruguay 's capital Montevideo 's bus operators CUTCSA (the most frequent Leyland client in Uruguay) and COTSUR rebodied multiple Worldmaster chassis with unsatisfactory results citing it was expensive and produced an mechanically aged product; CUTCSA rebodied the chassis sourced from heavily damaged and/or burned down buses at its own workshops with their in-house designed Banda Oriental (name used by
2668-594: The most influential proponent of that Italian styling that came to define automobile design trends worldwide. The decade between 1953 and 1963 saw many foreign firms ordering Ghia designs, such as Volkswagen (the Karmann Ghia ) and Volvo. Chrysler and its designer Virgil Exner became a close partner for 15 years, resulting in eighteen Chrysler Ghia Specials (1951–53), the K-310, the Chrysler Norseman ,
2726-628: The only home-market orders for Worldmasters were for the RT3/2 coach version, which attracted a small band of devoted followers comprising Gliderways of Smethwick , Smith's Tours of Wigan and Ellen Smith Coaches of Rochdale . Gliderways used Harrington coach bodies whilst the Lancashire operators had Plaxton body theirs. Between these three fewer than ten coaches were sold, at the time the Leyland Tiger Cub and AEC Reliance dominated
2784-483: The original layout of automobiles. A 1901 Autocar was the first gasoline-powered automobile to use a drive shaft and placed the engine under the seat. This pioneering vehicle is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution . Mounting the engine in the middle instead of the front of the vehicle puts more weight over the rear tires, so they have more traction and provide more assistance to
2842-443: The passenger compartment of the vehicle. In most automobiles, and in sports cars especially, ideal car handling requires balanced traction between the front and rear wheels when cornering, in order to maximize the possible speed around curves without sliding out. This balance is harder to achieve when the heavy weight of the engine is located far to the front or far to the rear of the vehicle. Some automobile designs strive to balance
2900-536: The potentially smoother ride is usually more than offset by stiffer shock absorbers . This layout also allows the motor, gearbox, and differential to be bolted together as a single unit. Together with independent suspension on the driven wheels, this removes the need for the chassis to transfer engine torque reaction. The largest drawback of mid-engine cars is restricted rear or front (in the case of front-mid layouts) passenger space; consequently, most mid-engine vehicles are two-seat vehicles. The engine in effect pushes
2958-662: The radiator relocated to the UK nearside just ahead of the rear-axle was sold from 1958 to fire-appliance builders as the Leyland Firemaster, the unique selling-point being that a water pump with power take-off from the transmission could be fitted at the extreme front of the chassis allowing the Firemaster to nose-in to incidents and be ready to deploy water hoses in half the time of conventional front-engined fire engines. Only Manchester and Glasgow Fire Brigades really took to
SECTION 50
#17327978325263016-412: The rear passenger seats forward towards the front axle (if the engine is behind the driver). Exceptions typically involve larger vehicles of unusual length or height in which the passengers can share space between the axles with the engine, which can be between them or below them, as in some vans, large trucks, and buses. The mid-engine layout (with a horizontal engine) was common in single-decker buses in
3074-412: The superior balance - and the car begins to spin. The moment of inertia about the center of gravity is low due to the concentration of mass between the axles (similar to standing in the middle of a playground roundabout, rather than at the edge) and the spin will occur suddenly, the car will rotate faster and it will be harder to recover from. Conversely, a front-engined car is more likely to break away in
3132-528: The top of the range. In the British market, however, the practice of using the Ghia name in such a capacity was finally phased out in 2010. The Titanium name has instead replaced Ghia as the flagship trim level, and is now used globally across all of Ford's markets to denote the top trim level. The British Ford Fiesta retained the Ghia trim designation for the longest period of any model: 31 years 8 months, uninterrupted, from February 1977 to November 2008. In
3190-518: The underfloor-engined single-deck coach market. The arrival of the L1/2 Leyland Leopard in 1959 followed by the PSU3 version in 1961 confined UK-registered Worldmasters to a trickle of undelivered export chassis, one of which (an ERT2/2) went to Happiways of Manchester in 1963, bodied by Duple (Northern) in the former HV Burlingham factory. Like Smith of Wigan, Happiways became part of today's Shearings coach operation. The RT3/2
3248-492: The years, many have credited Giorgetto Giugiaro with this design, but he only left Bertone for Ghia in late 1965 – too late to have much impact on the 450 SS, which was actually designed by Sergio Sartorelli . Giugiaro did revise the grille, front bumper, and rear before the car was presented. Presented at Turin in 1966, 57 examples were built until late 1967 (with late examples registered as model year 1968), although various sources state numbers as low as 52. From 1973,
3306-456: Was established in Aigle , Switzerland (1948). Following differences between Boano and the company's Naples -born chief engineer and designer Luigi Segre, Boano left the company in 1953 and ownership passed to Segre in 1954. Under the ownership of Luigi Segre , between 1953 and 1957, Giovanni Savonuzzi became Direttore Tecnico Progettazione e Produzione Carrozzerie e Stile and established Ghia as
3364-584: Was withdrawn from home market sale in 1961 and the RT3/1 in 1964. North America and the UK were the only areas in the world in the 1960s and 1970s where a passenger was unlikely to find a Worldmaster. Israel was the largest market with more than 5,000 in service, most of them had locally built bodies. More than 3,600 chassis were built at the Leyland Ashdod plant in Israel. They served as interurban, urban, coaches and even as trucks. Many were re-bodied during
#525474