Your favorite rear-engined car
 

Inspired by the Motor Trend thread, describe your favorite rear-engined car! But to keep it interesting, you cannot select a Volkswagen or Porsche, and mid-engine cars do not count.

Here's mine, the Fiat 850 Spider, brilliantly styled and packaged, but the only car ever made that would rust out after three years in the Arizona desert...

http://www.carfolio.com/images/dbima...850_spider.jpg

Tatra 87 or the Tatra 700GT coupe. I thibk the 87 is a genuinely good looking car while the T700 was so fabulously 80s (despite being from the 90s, the eastern block was always a few years behind stylistically). Both rear engine and neither German.

I'd like to find a tatra at some point but they are pretty uncommon in the US.


My car is sort of communist.

I was going to say a Tatra also. Definitely not a Renault Dauphine. I did like the Corvairs I've owned although the oil dripping on to the heater boxes was really distasteful in winter.

If I can't have a 911/912 or a VW Type I, I don't think I'll bother with rear engine.

Schwimmwagen :D

Neither a VW or a Porsche...

- Peter.

I drove a FIAT in the early 70's for a few months. I think it was called the 600.

Very small, very slow and no A/C. It was not mine; I just had access to it through a friend who thought it was the greatest car in the world.

For total weirdness you can't beat the early Subaru 360's. Top speed of about 60, but they would get 50 mpg and had plenty of head room.

The Isetta is also an interesting choice. I never drove one, but they do have a rear engine and they, or at least some of them, were built by BMW.

Subaru 360 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Renault 5 turbo 2.
or

Alpine A110

http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps23017180.jpg

moved to od

R5 turbos are mid engine afaik.

Corvairs
 

When I first met my wife in 1975, she was driving a 66 Corvair Corsa coupe.

I was a not a fan at first, but over the years, I realized they were a pretty nice car in a lot of respects. Regardless of the Ford/Nader film debacle, which was proven to be fake anyway, the second series cars had solved any issues with handling when driven in a normal manner. If you tried hard enough you could bring the rear end around on a late model (2nd gen), but it was significantly harder to do than on my swing axle 59 190SL.

Style wise, they were one of Bill Mitchell's outstanding designs when he was at his peak. Like the pony cars, you could get them in mild to wild trim. If you could find a nice one with a 4 speed, and either the turbo or the 4 carb engine, they were pretty quick and agile. Brakes were from the intermediates and for the time, they were exceptional. Very easy to modulate, and not prone to fading. Car was light enough to not require power steering or power brakes, and also delivered respectable gas mileage.

We had a 66 Corsa 140 four carb, dual exhaust car with a saginaw 4 speed for years. Even had factory air and a AM/FM radio. I kept it stock except for a set of magnum 500s and low profile tires. With the 2 gen suspension cribbed off the Corvette, camber change wasn't an issue. Also had a decent 68 Monza convertible with powerglide and 110hp engine (2 carb, single exhaust). Much slower car, but it was for cruising, not canyon carving.

I still enjoy seeing the occasional one, I think they are even prettier than when we owned ours.

It wasn't Nader that killed the car, it was the Mustang and the Camaro that matched it's price with a much more conventional car AND a V-8.
It's considered by the Corvair nuts that Nader's interference actually led to production past 1966. GM put zero into development for the after 1966. They killed off the turbo and the Corsa premium series, and production plummeted after 1966. The prevailing thought is that GM wanted to cancel the car, but it would look like they were capitulating to the safety accusations.

It was a different engineering approach, something we likely won't see again, had some teething problems, but hit a home run with the second series introduced in 1965. Ultimately, complexity and cost killed the car, it just couldn't compete with it's sibling, the Camaro.

If the right one came along at the right price, I'd have to think pretty hard on why I would not want to get it.

Jim

Renault Dauphine.

Out side of a 911 I really like the bugs and micro bus. Curse me if you must.

Always one of my favorite cars: http://www.mysubaru360.com/manuals_and_documents/Subaru_360_Consumer_Reports_April_69.pdf

"" But to keep it interesting, you cannot select a Volkswagen ( Type 1 bug ) or Porsche ( 911 / 912 ), and mid-engine cars do not count. ""

Now that I've got that fixed.

VW Type 2 Bus ( had 3 from 1970, 1 was a walk through w sun roof , one front bench seat, one camper. )

VW Type 3 Square back wagon , Fastback sort of a hach back looking car with a trunk. ( had many in the 68 to 72 range , bought not running fixed D-Jet injection , sold off. )

VW Type 4 ( 411 / 412 ) in wagon and hatch back form, the pinnacle of rear engine air cooled development, too bad the cars rotted badly. The rubber underseal was partly to blame. ( had a 1974 412 wagon and painted it Mack truck orange, drove it for a while sold off. Later saw it hit in rear in a salvage yard, called buyer , the relayed a story where someone in a full sized van hit car when stopped at a traffic light. Van driver claimed they didn't see car. . .About all you can see if the roof of the _bright orange_412 from van height. . .

( But never a type 1 bug )

Sebring Vangard Citicar ( electric, have one I'd like to sell. Basically a golf cart with a windshield wiper )

Delorean ( never had one )

Modern cement mixers. . . ( know where some are parked )

Delorean by all means.

I say this grinning my teeth since they had such bad reputations, I like Corvairs too. Not as much without a V8 swap. Otherwise it's like driving a VW.