The golden age of the rear-engine car

This type of car became immensely popular during the 1950s and the 1960s and companies from all over the automotive spectrum touted their merits in every market they sold cars in. Moving the engine to the back reduced the cost of a car and made its interior more spacious while keeping its overall dimensions in check, they argued.

However most car companies moved away from the rear-engined layout as quickly as they adopted it as tastes changed. Here we look back at the car that represent its glory days, and the reasons for its decline.

Weight, cost and packaging constraints drove several car-makers towards the rear-engined layout after the second world war. In his book, Fiat engineer Dante Giacosa explained why the Italian firm adopted the configuration for the Fiat 600 and then the Fiat 500 (pictured).

“The decisive element deciding me in favour of the rear engine-transmission arrangement was cost. The front arrangement was attractive because of the technical advantages presented by front-wheel drive, and even more because of the space it would leave free for the coachwork, but it would have made an economy model of the size we aimed at much more expensive than the rear-engined arrangement.”

Though he speaks only on behalf of Fiat, his reasoning explains why most mainstream car-makers adopted a rear-engined layout. The configuration began rising in popularity well before the 600 made its debut in 1955, though, as we’ll see:

The Czech firm Tatra started experimenting with rear-engined cars when it built a prototype named V570 in 1931. Its creators argued putting the engine in the back made the car quieter and more spacious because it didn’t need a transmission tunnel.

The layout also let it design a more aerodynamic body by extending the back end. The V570 was never mass produced but it’s a fascinating part of history because many historians claim it directly influenced the Volkswagen Beetle.

Tatra took the lessons it learned from the V570 project into a production car named 77. Launched in 1934, it was much larger than the prototype that helped shape it but the two cars shared several important attributes like a streamlined design and a rear-mounted engine.

The unit in question was an air-cooled V8 rated at 60bhp. The later 77a received a bigger, 75bhp V8. The 77 can hardly be considered a mass-produced car; production ended in 1938 after Tatra made about 250 examples. It's significant because it laid the foundations Tatra built on until it stopped making passenger cars in 1999.

The 700 of 1996 was its last car, and was a large, aerodynamic four-door with a rear-mounted, air-cooled V8 – just like the 77.

Adolf Hitler asked engineer Ferdinand Porsche to develop an affordable, economical car capable of putting Germany on wheels, at a time when car ownership was much lower than in neighbouring France.

While Porsche started from scratch, he already had a very concise idea of the type of car he wanted to create. He had toyed with the idea of a so-called people’s car for years and many of his designs used a rear-mounted engine. The first pre-production Beetle prototypes were built in 1938, and around 630 were built before the start of the second world war, when production ceased in favour of military production, such as the German army’s Kübelwagen, based on the Beetle.

Production restarted after the war and sales grew slowly at first, but they sky-rocketed during the 1950s. The one million mark for the Beetle arrived in 1955; the two million mark came just two years later. The Beetle outgrew its status as a basic economy car and became an icon.

It was also a very successful export, especially to America (pictured) where there was a demand for small cars not initially sold by the large car firms in Detroit. The Beetle gave its underpinnings to a wide variety of Volkswagen models and inspired dozens of models made by rival brands. With over 21 million examples built during a 65-year long production run, the Beetle remains the most popular rear-engined car ever.

Renault engineers secretly began working on the 4CV during German occupation in the second world war. Company founder Louis Renault allegedly didn’t know about the model; apparently he wasn’t informed because everyone knew he didn’t like the idea of a popular car for the mass market.

Some historians believe the 4CV’s creators chose a rear-engined layout after examining the Volkswagen Beetle but Renault claims it selected the configuration for cost and weight reasons.

4CV production began in 1947 and the model quickly travelled around the globe. It was sold in the United States, manufactured under license in Japan by Hino, and even built from complete knock-down kits in Sydney, Australia.

Significantly, the 4CV gave its platform to the Alpine A106, the firm’s first car. Renault made over one million examples of the 4CV until 1961. Its replacement was the Renault 4, and it changed to a front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive in the name of practicality.

The first Porsche 356 prototype made in 1948 used a mid-mounted engine. This configuration could have completely changed the course of Porsche’s history if it had stuck to it but the company chose to move the engine behind the rear axle on the production model for cost and packaging reasons.

The 356 became the first in a long line of rear-engined Porsche models that continues with the 911 today. Porsche never forgot about its origins and it later released several mid-engined cars, including the 914 and the 718 Boxster.

The 600 sparked Fiat’s long association with the rear-mounted engine. The company envisioned it as a model that would put Italy on wheels after the war. It had to be cheap to buy, cheap to operate and cheap to service. Fiat seriously considered front-wheel drive but, as engineer Dante Giacosa explained, ultimately chose to make it rear-wheel drive and rear-engined to keep costs low.

Early examples came with reversed doors and a water-cooled, 633cc four-cylinder engine. The engine’s displacement grew during the car’s long production run, and spawned several other versions during its long production run. It became the SEAT 800 in Spain, where it gained a second set of doors, but Fiat never offered it as a four-door.

Neckar and Zastava made the car in Germany and in Yugoslavia, respectively. Factories in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile also built 600s with modifications made to suit local requirements.

And, in Italy, dozens of coachbuilders turned the 600 into coupes, convertibles, sports cars and even luxury cars. Italian production of the 600 ended in 1969 but it remained available in Yugoslavia until 1985.

Fiat wasted no time in expanding the 600 line-up. It released the 600 Multipla, a precursor to the modern people-carrier, in early 1956. Engineers retained the rear-mounted engine but shifted the front seats to the space right over the front axle in order to carve out a roomier cabin without making the car significantly longer.

Hailed as one of the first leisure-oriented cars, the 600 Multipla could seat six, sleep two or carry a generous amount of cargo.

The Renault 4CV was France’s best-selling car between 1949 and 1955. In an effort to keep the momentum going, the French firm created a larger and more comfortable car that could lure 4CV owners who were ready for an upgrade.

The Dauphine was born in 1956 and it led the sales charts between 1957 and 1961; Renault’s bet had paid off.  It looked considerably more modern than the 4CV but the two models shared a number of mechanical components, including their rear-mounted, water-cooled four-cylinder engine. Renault made several variants of the Dauphine.

The range included a more upmarket model named Ondine, high-performance Gordini- and 1093-badged models plus a convertible named Floride. It was also sold in America (pictured), where it sold well at first to households that wanted a smaller second car.

Alfa Romeo notably made the Dauphine for the Italian market; it was the firm’s only mass-produced rear-engined car. Dauphine production ended in 1967 in France and in 1970 in Argentina. Renault made over two million examples.

Fiat’s 600 exceeded all expectations but it remained out of reach for many buyers who settled for a scooter or a moped. Decision-makers put Dante Giacosa in charge of creating a smaller, entry-level model capable of putting even the most modest households on wheels. The 500 made its debut in 1957.

Slow, noisy and pretty basic, the original 500 raised more than a few eyebrows when it went on sale. Many argued buyers were better off saving up for a 600. Demand picked up after Fiat added features and increased the 479cc, two-cylinder engine’s output to 15hp in late 1957. The 500 remained a strong seller until production ended in 1975, three years after its intended replacement, the 126, went on sale.

Like the 600, the 500 spawned many variants inside and outside of Italy. Abarth and Giannini famously took it racing, Fiat launched a more spacious variant named Giardinetta (which was also sold as an Autobianchi) and even a beach-friendly model called Jolly.

Austrian company Steyr-Puch prepared the 500 for the Alps by fitting it with a more powerful flat-twin engine.

In the 1950s, NSU was better versed in making scooters and mopeds than cars. It began planning its return to the automotive space when it grew tired of losing clients who were seeking to upgrade to a four-wheeler with a fixed roof.

The Prinz nearly arrived with three wheels, like the Messerschmitt KR 200, but it made its debut at the 1957 Frankfurt auto show with four wheels and a rear-mounted, two-cylinder engine.

Production began the following year with a 20hp, 600cc air-cooled twin. The Prinz kept its rear-engined configuration as it received upgrades including a complete redesign in 1961 and several high-performance, Gordini-rivalling variants during the 1960s.

An eccentric Japanese law convinced Subaru engineers to place the 360’s two-stroke, two-cylinder engine in the back. Early on, they knew the model needed to comply with the strict kei car regulations announced in 1949 to convince motorists to think small.

This meant it couldn’t stretch longer than 2997 mm (118 inches), wider than 1295 mm (51 inches) tall and taller than 1981 mm (78 inches). Placing the engine in the back cleared up enough space for four adults in the passenger compartment while staying under the size limits imposed by the Japanese government.

The 360 remained in production until 1971. The entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin imported the car to the USA to establish Subaru America in 1968; driving this tiny car among the usually enormous cars on US roads must have been somewhat scary…

The Michelotti-designed 700 played a significant role in saving BMW from collapse. It took the company into a booming segment of the market it wasn’t previously present in.

BMW didn’t want to spend money on designing an engine from scratch so it modified the BMW R67 motorcycle’s air-cooled, flat-twin for car use.

The firm mounted the engine behind the passenger compartment to better compete against the most popular cars sold in Europe during the late 1950s.

Production lasted between 1959 and 1965, a point by which BMW had already started forging its image as a maker of sporty, prestigious cars.

Picture: BMW 700 Coupe

Chevrolet released the Corvair for the 1960 model year in a bid to compete directly against the Volkswagen Beetle. The Corvair used a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine but the similarities between it and its German rival largely ended there.

It wore a considerably more modern design, it was bigger and it offered buyers a flat-six engine that made 80 hp in its initial state of tune. Sporty variants – including a turbocharged, 180 hp model – joined the line-up in the early 1960s.

Chevrolet’s answer to European economy cars could have spawned an entire segment but its handling drew the damning criticism of safety advocate Ralph Nader. His book Unsafe at Any Speed cemented the model’s reputation as dangerous. Chevrolet corrected most of the Corvair’s handling faults with a thorough update in 1965 but the damage was already done – though the model did go onto sell around 1.835 million examples.

The firm didn’t dare release another rear-engined car after Corvair production ended in 1969.

The USSR-built ZAZ-965 launched the long-running Zaporozhets series in 1960. It looked like a Soviet interpretation of the Fiat 600 and the resemblance wasn’t a pure coincidence. The Russian government instructed ZAZ engineers to closely examine the then-new Fiat before starting the design process.

The 965 wasn’t a carbon copy of the 600, however. It featured a torsion bar suspension system inspired by the one fitted to the Volkswagen Beetle and it came with an air-cooled V4 engine.

The 965 was replaced by the 966 (pictured) – which openly drew inspiration from the NSU Prinz – in 1966 but it remained available until 1969. The 966 morphed into the 968 in 1971 and remained available in various forms until 1994, always with a rear-mounted, air-cooled V4 engine.

Simca tried every nearly mechanical configuration available. It experimented with rear-engined, rear-wheel drive models when it released the 1000 in 1961. The four-door was designed with input from Fiat – which owned part of Simca – and it anticipated a rising demand for a bigger, more powerful car than the 600 powered by a 1000cc engine.

The team in charge of the 1000 set out to develop a humble family car priced within most people’s reach; they unintentionally created one of the most popular (and successful) race cars of all time.

The Rallye-badged variants of the Simca 1000 won competitions all over Europe and they remain popular as historic racers today. Abarth also tuned the model shortly after its introduction and Simca turned its entry-level family car into a pair of low-slung coupes called 1000 Coupe (pictured) and 1200S, respectively.

Simca released the 1100 in 1967 with a transversally-mounted four-cylinder engine that spun the front wheels. It was sold alongside the 1000 until troubled Simca ended production of both models in 1978.

The A106, Alpine’s first model, was rear-engined because it shared many mechanical components with the Renault 4CV. The company stuck to this configuration when it designed the A108 and it found no reason to move the engine when it began working on the A110.

Compact, light and reasonably powerful, the A110 became one of the most successful rear-engined race cars ever to line up on a starting grid. The A110 used Renault-sourced engines throughout its entire career.

Early models came with 55hp, 956cc four-cylinder borrowed from the then-new 8 while later examples received a fuel-injected, 1605cc four-cylinder borrowed from the 17 TS and tuned to deliver 140bhp.

Alpine, like Porsche, kept the rear-mounted engine for as long as possible. The A310 and the A610 were both rear-engined. The born-again A110 released in 2017 switched to a mid-engined layout, however.

Many understandably assumed Renault would stop making rear-engined cars when it released the front-wheel drive 4 in 1961. The company wasn’t quite done, however. The Dauphine was beginning to show its age and Renault sought to replace it with a new model named Renault 8.

Its boxy design broke away from the Dauphine’s soft, rounded lines but the two cars were similar under the sheet metal.

Renault kept the water-cooled, rear-mounted engine instead of making the 8 front-engined and front-wheel drive like the Renault 4. It probably worried about alienating a customer base who had driven rear-engined cars since the 1940s.

Renault filled the gap between the Renault 8 and the Renault 16 by releasing another rear-engined model named Renault 10. It was an evolution of the 8 with a longer front end that wore a model-specific design and a nicer interior.

The best-remembered variant of the 8 is the Gordini (pictured), which arrived in 1964 with a 90hp, 1108cc engine. It gained a 100hp, 1255cc four-cylinder (and two additional lights up front) in 1967. French production of the 8 stopped in 1973, six years after Renault made the last Dauphine, but the model survived until 1976 in Spain.

Hillman released the rear-engined Imp in 1963. Designed to tackle the Mini head-on, the Imp had a clever feature none of its competitors could boast about.

Its rear window opened upwards to let motorists place luggage on the back seat. Those who needed more space could fold the rear seatback flat, another unusual feature in the 1960s.

Hillman went to great lengths to make the Imp easier to live with on a daily basis than the Mini but reliability problems - notably with the cooling system - gave it a bad reputation it couldn’t recover from.

Strikes at the Linwood factory in Scotland that built it compounded its problems. The Imp’s less-than-illustrious career contributed greatly to the financial problems of Hillman parent company Rootes, leading Rootes into the arms of Chrysler in 1967.

Porsche replaced the 356 with the 901 in 1963. It was a brand-new model from the ground up; it wore a sleeker design and it received a flat-six engine. Peugeot swiftly reminded Porsche that it owned every three-digit nameplate with a zero in the middle so the 901 became the 911 shortly after its introduction.

The rest, as they say, is history. The 911 is one of the most famous rear-engined cars ever made.

The 911 has gone through many, many evolutions in its long history. It has got bigger, heavier, more advanced and much more powerful. It shifted from air-cooling to water-cooling and even launched a hybrid version in 2024 (pictured). It has always remained rear-engined and this configuration continues to shape its emblematic design.

Developed to take the torch from the 600, the Fiat 850 was a new design built around the same rear-engined layout as its predecessor. Released in 1964, the 850 should have arrived with a sloping silhouette like the 600’s but internal testing revealed prototypes weren’t aerodynamically efficient.

They had nearly the same 68mph top speed as the 600 even though horsepower output had jumped from 29 to 40. Fiat rushed a three-box design to production to avoid delaying the car, according to Dante Giacosa, and the 850 went on sale right on schedule with a 75mph top speed.

SEAT again built the 850 under license and it again released a variant with an extra set of doors. Back in Turin, Fiat had watched coachbuilders steal the spotlight with sporty variants of the 600 and it was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

It released coupe and convertible (pictured) variants of the model in 1965 and fitted both with a more powerful version of the 843cc engine. Coupe and Spider models received a 903cc four-cylinder engine in 1968. In the United States, Fiat moved in the opposite direction.

For years, it sold the 850 with an 817cc four to skirt emissions regulations. Production ended in 1973 and Fiat replaced the 850 with the front-engined, front-wheel drive 127.

Škoda didn’t ask its research and development department to make the 1000 MB rear-engined. The car simply had to be lighter, more efficient and more compact than the firm’s other models. In the late 1950s, that meant ditching body-on-frame construction.

With that matter settled, engineers considered three options: front-engined and front-wheel drive, front-engined and rear-wheel drive as well as rear-engined and rear-wheel drive. They chose the latter because it made the car simpler to build – and consequently cheaper to sell.

The 1000 MB was the first in a decades-long series of rear-engined Škoda models that ended when the last 120 rolled off the assembly line in 1990. The model family included four-door passenger cars, two-door coupes with a fastback-like roof line and a rally-winning, hot-rodded model named 130 RS.

The popularity of rear-engined cars had already started to decline when Fiat released the 126 in 1972. Developed to finally replace the 500, it stood out with a boxier design that brought it in line with the prevalent styling trends of the 1970s.

The sheet metal hid a packaging solution largely borrowed from the 500, however. Power came from an air-cooled, two-cylinder engine mounted behind the passenger compartment.

In early cars, the 594cc twin sent 23hp to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual transmission. The 126 survived for even longer than the 500. In 1987, its 15th year on the market, it received a water-cooled, 704cc two-cylinder and a rear hatch for added practicality.

Fiat stopped selling the 126 in many western European countries in 1993 but the model remained hugely popular in Poland. Polish production began in 1973 and didn’t stop until 2000. All told, 4.6 million examples of the 126 were manufactured, against 3.8 million 500s.

The original Mini (pictured) of 1959 defiantly proved it was possible to combine front-wheel drive and front-engine in a small, economy-oriented car which still was reasonably spacious given its size. It led many car-makers to seriously search for alternatives to the rear-mounted engine during the 1960s.

Those companies which had never released a rear-engined model, like Citroën, Ford and Saab, sat back and watched. Renault cut its teeth with the 1959 Estafette and truly started its shift when it released the Renault 3 and the Renault 4 in 1961.

Fiat started  looking into front-wheel drive in 1947 and finally brought the layout to production in the 1964 Autobianchi Primula. Simca introduced the 1100 in 1967, and Fiat unveiled the 128 two years later. 1969 is also when Chevrolet stopped building the Corvair, and never made another rear-engined car.

Even Volkswagen, a company many believed would never change, warmed up to the idea of making front-engined cars. Its first was the K70, which unexpectedly joined the Volkswagen line-up from NSU in 1970.

The Passat introduced in 1973 and the Golf (pictured) launched in 1974 both used a similar layout. The glory days of the rear-engined car were firmly at an end.

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