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39-535: The Panther Solo is a mid-engined sports car that was made by the British company Panther Car Company . It was available as a two-seat coupé , with the option of additional rear seats to make it a 2+2 . SsangYong Motor Company , which had become the owner of Panther Westwinds, made a concept car called the SsangYong Solo 3 as a tribute to the original Solo and Solo 2, as well as a racing version called

78-501: A Volkswagen beetle as the donor car for this reason. The relative simplicity and light weight compared to 4WD can therefore sometimes outweigh the disadvantage of only having two driven wheels. Where RR differs from MR is in that the engine is located outside the wheelbase. The major advantage of MR - low moment of inertia - is negated somewhat (though still lower than FR ), and there is more room for passengers and cargo (though usually less than FR). Furthermore, because both axles are on

117-610: A fibreglass body to reduce its weight. However, Toyota launched its second generation MR2 around the same time, and the Solo was unable to compete with its rival. The South Korean owner of Panther, Y. C. Kim, made the decision to amend the Solo after taking a vacation in Guam where he saw one of the early MR2s. A new styling design for the Solo was created by Ken Greenley of the London RCA vehicle styling school. The restyled car featured

156-445: A handful of 2+2 designs . Additionally, some microtrucks use this layout, with a small, low engine beneath a flat load floor above the rear wheel-wells. This makes it possible to move the cab right to the front of the vehicle, thus increasing the loading area at the expense of slightly reduced load depth. In modern racing cars, RMR is a common configuration and is usually synonymous with "mid-engine". Due to its weight distribution and

195-585: A rear-engined vehicle, although they have introduced multiple all-wheel-drive models. Most notably, the 911 Turbo has been sold as AWD-only since the release of the 993 model. Race-oriented models such as the GT3 and twin-turbocharged GT2 remain solely RR, however. Another manufacturer to implement the RR configuration was the DeLorean Motor Company with its DeLorean sports car. To compensate for

234-531: A sign of greater things to come. The 718 followed similarly in 1958. But it was not until the late 1950s that RMR reappeared in Grand Prix (today's " Formula One ") races in the form of the Cooper - Climax (1957), soon followed by cars from BRM and Lotus . Ferrari and Porsche soon made Grand Prix RMR attempts with less initial success. The mid-engined layout was brought back to Indianapolis in 1961 by

273-431: A single motor due to the low weight and cooling requirements of the electric motor . The Tesla Cybertruck and GMC Hummer EV will also use this layout for their base variants. Most modern heavy duty buses use an extreme RR layout. In transit buses this can be used to make a very low floor level in the first two-thirds of the bus, thus making disabled access much easier. Most tour buses and coaches also employ

312-476: A slightly larger 2+2 layout with a composite upper body, permanent four wheel drive and a mid-mounted engine from a Ford Sierra Cosworth . This would be called the "Solo 2". The body engineering designers involved were Martin Freestone (composites), Keith Hunter (underbody and structure) and William "Bill" Davis (engineering). The Solo 2 used the 1,993 cc (121.6 cu in) turbocharged engine from

351-531: A very favorable balance, with plenty of weight on the driven rear axle under acceleration, while distributing the weight fairly evenly under braking, thereby making optimal use of all four wheels to decelerate the car rapidly as well. The RMR layout generally has a lower tendency to understeer . However, since there is less weight over the front wheels, under acceleration the front of the car can be prone to lift and still have understeer . Most rear-engine layouts have historically been used in smaller vehicles, because

390-480: Is between the rear axle and the rear bumper. Although very common in transit buses and coaches due to the elimination of the drive shaft with low-floor buses , this layout has become increasingly rare in passenger cars . Most of the traits of the RR configuration are shared with the mid-engine rear-wheel-drive, or MR . Placing the engine near the driven rear wheels allows for a physically smaller, lighter, less complex, and more efficient drivetrain, since there

429-426: Is no need for a driveshaft , and the differential can be integrated with the transmission, commonly referred to as a transaxle . The front-engine front-wheel-drive layout also has this advantage. Since the engine is typically the heaviest component of the car, putting it near the rear axle usually results in more weight over the rear axle than the front, commonly referred to as a rear weight bias. The farther back

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468-625: The 130H (1934). The radical 1930s Tatra format (air-cooled, rear engine and streamlined, teardrop design) was an influence on Ferdinand Porsche's 'People's Car' ( Volkswagen ) for Adolf Hitler. As well as being the most produced car ever, it set a trend for RR small cars that lasted well into the 1960s. The final form of the RR Volkswagen was the Type 3 of 1961, which flattened the engine (or 'pancake'), allowing for luggage spaces front and rear. Porsche has continued to develop its 911 model as

507-639: The 1923 Benz Tropfenwagen . It was based on an earlier design named the Rumpler Tropfenwagen in 1921 made by Edmund von Rumpler , an Austrian engineer working at Daimler. The Benz Tropfenwagen was designed by Ferdinand Porsche along with Willy Walb and Hans Nibel . It raced in 1923 and 1924 and was most successful in the Italian Grand Prix in Monza where it stood fourth. Later, Ferdinand Porsche used mid-engine design concept towards

546-497: The Auto Union Grand Prix cars of the 1930s which became the first winning RMR racers. They were decades before their time, although MR Miller Specials raced a few times at Indianapolis between 1939 and 1947. In 1953 Porsche premiered the tiny and altogether new RMR 550 Spyder and in a year it was notoriously winning in the smaller sports and endurance race car classes against much larger cars –

585-605: The Cooper Car Company with Jack Brabham running as high as third and finishing ninth. Cooper did not return, but from 1963 on British built mid-engined cars from constructors like Brabham , Lotus and Lola competed regularly and in 1965 Lotus won Indy with their Type 38 . Rear mid-engines were widely used in microcars like the Isetta or the Zündapp Janus . The first rear mid-engined road car after WW II

624-533: The Volkswagen Beetle , and one of the few production air-cooled turbocharged cars, the Porsche 930 ). For liquid-cooled vehicles, however, this layout presents a disadvantage, since it requires either increased coolant piping from a front-mounted radiator (meaning more weight and complexity), or relocating the radiator(s) to the sides or rear, and adding air ducting to compensate for the lower airflow at

663-464: The gearbox and differential . This represented an extremely innovative sportscar at a time when all of its competitors (aside from the rear-engined Porsches), from Ferraris to Aston Martins , were traditional front-engined, rear-wheel-drive grand tourers. The Pontiac Fiero was a mid-engined sports car that was built by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1984 to 1988. The Fiero

702-583: The Ford Sierra RS producing 204 hp (152 kW) at 6000 rpm and 200 lb⋅ft (271 N⋅m) of torque at 4500 rpm, around twice the horsepower of the Solo 1 . It was mated to a Borg-Warner T-5 5-speed manual transmission (same as in the RS), which drove a Ferguson four-wheel drive system modified by Panther to use XR4x4 components, including both differentials . The company decided also to stretch

741-427: The RR layout has some advantages compared to other 2WD layouts. The weight is biased towards the driven wheels- as with FF vehicles. This both improves drive-wheel traction and reduces the tendency for the undriven wheels to dig in. In addition, the driving and steering requirements are split between front and rear- as with FR vehicles- making it less likely for either to lose traction. Many dune buggies successfully use

780-610: The Renault-engined Lotus Europa , built from 1966 to 1975. Finally, in 1966, the Lamborghini Miura was the first high performance mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive road car. The concept behind the Miura was that of putting on the road a grand tourer featuring state-of-the-art racing-car technology of the time; hence the Miura was powered by a V12 transversely mounted between the rear wheels, solidal to

819-615: The SsangYong Solo Le Mans, a rebadged WR LM94 . The first Solo, the Solo 1 , was mid-engined rear wheel drive car, powered by a Ford 1.6 CVH engine producing 105 hp (78 kW) (as fitted in the Ford Fiesta XR2 ). and designed as a replacement for the marque's volume model, the Panther Kallista . The car used relatively simple technology, had contemporary styling and was manufactured with

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858-429: The engine, the greater the bias. Typical weight bias for an FF (front engine, front-wheel-drive) is 65/35 front/rear; for FR, 55/45; for MR, 45/55; for RR, 35/65. A static rear weight requires less forward brake bias , as load is more evenly distributed among all four wheels under braking. Similarly, a rear weight bias means that the driven wheels have increased traction when accelerating, allowing them to put more power on

897-489: The favorable vehicle dynamics it produces, this layout is heavily employed in open-wheel Formula racing cars (such as Formula One and IndyCar ) as well as most purpose-built sports racing cars . This configuration was also common in smaller-engined 1950s microcars , in which the engines did not take up much space. Because of successes in motorsport, the RMR platform has been commonly used in many road-going sports cars despite

936-424: The fully rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout , the center of mass of the engine is in front of the rear axle. This layout is typically chosen for its favorable weight distribution . Placing the car's heaviest component within the wheelbase minimizes its rotational inertia around the vertical axis, facilitating turn-in or yaw angle . Also, a near 50/50% weight distribution, with a slight rear weight bias, gives

975-403: The ground and accelerate faster. The disadvantage to a rear weight bias is that the car can become unstable and tend to oversteer , especially when decelerating (whether braking or lifting off the throttle; see lift-off oversteer ). When this happens, rotational inertia dictates that the added weight away from the axis of rotation (generally the steering wheels) will be more likely to maintain

1014-422: The help of electronic aids. One of first RR cars was Tatra 77 of 1934, the first serial-produced aerodynamic car, designed by Hans Ledwinka . Tatra used this layout until end of production of T700 in 1999. In case of T613 and T700 Tatra used layout with engine above rear axle, which reduced some disadvantages of RR layout. Mercedes-Benz also produced several models of RR cars in this period, starting with

1053-451: The inherent challenges of design, maintenance and lack of cargo space. The similar mid-engine, four-wheel-drive layout gives many of the same advantages and is used when extra traction is desired, such as in some supercars and in the Group B rally cars. The 1900 NW Rennzweier was one of the first race cars with mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Other known historical examples include

1092-456: The public, two were destroyed and one is still owned by the owner of Panther. One vehicle was written off by a motoring journalist who walked away unhurt from the wreckage. As of 2020, 11 examples survive in the UK, with all but one listed as SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification, to legally notify the government that the vehicle will not be driven on public roads). MR layout In contrast to

1131-401: The rear of the car. Due to the handling difficulty, the need for more space efficiency, and the near ubiquitous use of liquid-cooled engines in modern cars, most manufacturers have abandoned the RR layout. The major exception is Porsche , who has developed the 911 for over 40 years and has taken advantage of the benefits of RR while mitigating its drawbacks to acceptable levels, lately with

1170-475: The same side of the engine, it is technically more straightforward to drive all four wheels, than in a mid-engined configuration (though there have been more high-performance cars with the M4 layout than with R4 ). Finally, a rear-mounted engine has empty air (often at a lower pressure) behind it when moving, allowing more efficient cooling for air-cooled vehicles (more of which have been RR than liquid-cooled, such as

1209-564: The spin, especially under braking. This is an inherent instability in the design, making it easier to induce and more difficult to recover from a slide than in a less rear-weight-biased vehicle. Under hard acceleration, the decreased weight over the front wheels means less traction, sometimes producing a tendency for rear-engined cars to understeer out of a corner. In these respects, an RR can be considered to be an exaggeration of MR - harder braking, faster and earlier acceleration, and increased oversteer. In off-road and low-traction situations,

Panther Solo - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-463: The uneven (35/65) weight distribution caused by the rear-mounted engine, DeLorean used rear wheels with a diameter slightly greater than the front wheels. Before that was the rear-engined Škoda's from Škoda 1000MB (produced from 1964) to Škoda 130/135/136 (produced until 1990) or the Polski Fiat 126p (produced until October 2000). A range of sports road cars and racing cars with the RR layout

1287-412: The weight of the engine at the rear has an adverse effect on a larger car's handling, making it 'tail-heavy', although this effect is more pronounced with engines mounted behind the rear axle. It is felt that the low polar inertia is crucial in selection of this layout. The mid-engined layout also uses up central space, making it generally only practical for single seating-row sports-cars, with exception to

1326-522: The wheelbase to accommodate 2+2 seating, which was partly done by ex- Ford Europe engineers who had worked on the Sierra Cosworth and XR4x4. March did the aerodynamics , producing a C d of 0.33, as well as producing the composite construction, encouraged by March chairman Robin Herd . One of the development cars had a twin turbo setup due to the known turbo lag issues. A troublesome area

1365-687: Was produced by the French company Alpine . These had bodies made of composite materials and used mechanical components made by Renault. (Alpine was eventually acquired by Renault; the A610 was a Renault product that used the Alpine name.) Early cars using the RR layout included the Tucker , Volkswagen Beetle , Porsche 356 , Chevrolet Corvair , NSU Prinz , ZAZ Zaporozhets and Hino Contessa . Many modern electric cars use an RR layout for base variants with

1404-533: Was the 1962 (Rene) Bonnet / Matra Djet , which used the 1108cc Renault Sierra engine, mated to the transaxle from the FWD Renault Estafette van. Nearly 1700 were built until 1967. This was followed by the first De Tomaso, the Vallelunga , which mated a tuned Ford Cortina 1500 Kent engine to a VW transaxle with Hewland gearsets. Introduced at Turin in 1963, 58 were built 1964–68. A similar car was

1443-455: Was the first two-seater Pontiac since the 1926 to 1938 coupes, and also the first mass-produced mid-engine sports car by a U.S. manufacturer. Rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout In automotive design , an RR , or rear-engine , rear-wheel-drive layout places both the engine and drive wheels at the rear of the vehicle. In contrast to the RMR layout , the center of mass of the engine

1482-405: Was to be glued using an aerospace adhesive to the lower chassis. No rollbar was needed. The suspension used Escort struts in front, while the disc brakes were fitted with Scorpio -derived ABS . It is not known exactly how many vehicles were built (believed to have been between 12 and 25), as sometimes Panther would change the chassis number of prototype cars. All but three Solos were sold to

1521-408: Was with the 4 wheel drive transfer box. This was a custom made part, the internals were chain-driven and the chains had a propensity for self-destruction under heavy engine load. The lower body of the Solo 2 was a space frame made primarily of steel with the upper body being made from aluminium honeycomb sandwiched between multiple sheets of impregnated glass fibre bonded with epoxy. The upper body

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