Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucky1
So what's the point of the rear engine layout?
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Useless-for-people rear seats. That's it. I've been saying for years to just take a cayman chassis and put a 911 body over it and call it good. Porsche has even done something similar to this at times for prototype development, but the purists insist they need the seats that no one can actually ride in. It's not that you can't overcome this, it just takes more money and technology/development comparatively. Why were the cararra and 918 hypercars mid-engine? Because they knew this was the best layout. With 5 more years of development with the 911, they've finally surpassed the 918, which was not a light car, but was way faster than any 911 at the time due to the configuration and being able to capture and use braking energy. Although 911s have been raced forever, you can see that their highest level race cars are mid-engined as well. Maybe a while before they come out with a new porsche hypercar, but I doubt it would be rear-engined.
This is not to rag on porsche for making the 911 rear engined, but it is an inherent weakness that has to be overcome, just like the reverse of the 911 awd chassis, the subaru sti/wrx, where the engine is placed in front of the front axle. You are rewarded with massive understeer followed by snap-oversteer. There are some ways to help tune this out, but it's one reason why it was almost always bested by the Evo.