**The Mid-Engine Car Era: A Fading Chapter in Automotive History**

The mid-engine car has been a staple of the automotive industry since the 1960s, with iconic models like the Corvette and Lotus Elise showcasing this unique design philosophy. However, as we approach a new era of electric vehicles (EVs) and electrification, it's becoming increasingly clear that the mid-engine car is an endangered species.

**A Brief History**

The first mid-engine sports car, the Chevrolet Corvair, was introduced in 1966. This bold move by General Motors was not without its risks, as the company was reportedly losing $20,000 per car at launch. Despite this financial gamble, the Corvette has become an iconic symbol of American automotive excellence.

**Why Mid-Engine Cars are Dying**

So, what's behind the decline of mid-engine cars? One reason is that established manufacturers can't simply change their design philosophy to accommodate a mid-engine layout. If they want to create a new car with this configuration, it would require a significant investment in research and development. Moreover, marketing teams would likely argue that customers wouldn't know how to market and sell such a unique vehicle.

**The Only Way to Revive Mid-Engine Cars**

If any manufacturer wants to viably make a mid-engine car today, they would need to revive an old name that was already mid-engined. However, it's unlikely we'll see a 2022 Fiera on the horizon anytime soon.

**A One-Off Example: Hyundai RM19**

In 2019, Hyundai showcased a mid-engine track concept called the RM19. This car had a six-speed sequential gearbox and near 50/50 weight distribution, making it an impressive performer. Unfortunately, this project was a one-off, and even if it wasn't, there would have been significant work required to make it more practical.

**The Final Nail in the Coffin: Electrification**

Many manufacturers, including Mini, Audi, Jaguar, and Lotus, have committed to an all-EV lineup before 2030. When it comes to EVs, mid-engine design philosophy is no longer as relevant, as the motor placement and distribution of weight are totally different.

**The End of an Era**

As we move towards a new era of electric vehicles, it's clear that the mid-engine car has had its day. However, who knows what the future holds? Maybe someone will give their internal combustion engines a last hurrah and create a midship coupe that will be remembered for generations to come.

**Thank You**

Thank you very much for watching Wheelhouse this week! Don't forget to follow Donut Media on all social media platforms and join our Discord server, the Donut Underground.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe era of the cheap mid-engined car is dead cars like the pontiac fiero and the toyota mr2 are a thing of the past no one and i mean no one is talking about making a cheap midship car anytime soon and almost certainly never will again why is the most balanced and sporty setup for a car only reserved for supercars these days why can't a company like honda take the civic type r drivetrain drop it in the back of a dell soul-like body and sell for cheap why is a concept that seems so easy so rare and expensive well today on wheelhouse we're going to show why mid-engine cars should be really common why they're not a big thanks to helix for sponsoring today's video by now you all know my motto about sleep so say it with me sleep is the most important meal of the day and finding the right mattress for me has always been a challenge that's why i ordered a helix because in just a few clicks i'm paired with the best mattress for me helix understands that everyone is different and even developed a sleep quiz that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you i personally like a medium feel and often sleep on my tum tum so helix paired me with the helix dust lux and to prove how comfortable it is i decided to make my animated self jump out of a plane and land on it for a comfortable dramatic effect ooh that's comfy but you know what's better than finding the perfect mattress how about helix delivering it right to your front door it even comes with a 100 night sleep trial so you can be sure it's the perfect match or they'll come pick it up themselves and give you a full refund so say goodbye to uncomfortable mattresses and head on over to helixsleep.com donutmedia or click the link in the description to receive up to 200 off your mattress plus two free pillows um animator two pillows please that's more like it if you're not sure why i'm making such a big deal about mid-engine cars let me explain there's a reason that every supercar from lamborghini mclaren bugatti pagani and most ferraris are all mid-engined for sports car you want rear-wheel drive as the car accelerates the weight of the car shifts backward making the front wheels go light and the rear wheels push into the asphalt gaining traction but beyond that mid-engine cars have another advantage and that has to do with the polar moment of you know what this is getting a little too physics-y for me i'll let my fellow donut host jeremiah explain thank you nolan now the polar moment of inertia concept is an extension of isaac newton's first law of motion an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest it's resistant to change just like groomers and this is called inertia a polar moment of inertia refers to an object's resistance to rotating around an axis the axis pole in this case is the drive wheels as the engine turns one of two things is going to happen either the wheels are going to rotate or if the wheels were fixed in space the car would rotate around those wheels now the amount of force it would take to rotate the car once is measured in distance over time if all the weight of the car was at the furthest point from our access it would have to travel a further distance in the same amount of time therefore requiring more work but if all the weight were nearer to the axis it would require less work because it would travel less distance and it means a mid-engine car would be able to put more power to the ground for the same amount of work as a front engined rear-wheel drive car i hope that helps now before we get too deep into this let's look at the cheapest mid-engine cars on sale today there's a sixty thousand dollar c8 corvette retail the sixty thousand dollar porsche cayman retail and the recently discontinued alfa romeo 4c for 67 000 not exactly economy cars for comparison the 1984 pontiac fiero started at eight thousand dollars even if you adjusted for inflation you could still buy two of those for the price of a current mid-engine car even a fully specced out sw20 mr2 turbo from 1989 would have only been about 40 000 in today's money and that was the most expensive version so what gives why are all these new mid engine cars so much more expensive well it all starts with engines in the corvette the caiman and the 4c those engines are designed for their respective chassis for comparison in the fiero the mr2 and even the lotus elise that wasn't the case they all used transversely mounted engines from existing front-wheel drive cars the fiero used the same four-cylinder iron duke from the legendary pontiac 6000 le and the last mr2 that toyota made was using the same 1zzz engine from the celica gt one of my best friends in college pronounced celica cilicia i thought that was very funny see when you have a front-wheel drive car the power has to make it to the wheels that are next to the engine it goes down an axle or half shaft coming out of each side of the transmission if that car was front engine in rear wheel drive the power would have to go out the back of the transmission down the drive shaft to get to the rear differential and the rear wheels and since nearly 90 percent of cars in the us drive the front wheels in some way most engines these days are transversely mounted so to make a front engined rear wheel drive car you have to design an entirely new drivetrain which is expensive but wait what if you could just take that front engine front wheel drivetrain and drop it in the middle of a sporty coop you'd save money and you have a sporty car that enthusiasts would love seems like a no-brainer right so why is no one doing it now why can't vw stick their gti engine in the back of a jetta or maybe fiat put their barth engine in the back of a 500 where it was in the 50s well it's not that simple first is the most obvious problem the market the sports car market is already small with most enthusiast cars being hot versions of an existing platform you got your golf gti's veloster ends and civic type r's they're all based on platforms of cheaper economy cars cars that are already designed for an engine up front not only is there no space in the back but you'd have to completely redesign the chassis and the weight distribution of all the other heavy components like the fuel tank it means that you might as well be designing a dedicated platform cheap sports cars with dedicated platforms like the toyota 86 are getting more and more uncommon as new buyers don't seem to be looking for dedicated sports car unless they're in the next tier up wise toyota and subaru had to share development on the 86 and brz just so they could afford the r d the only other cheap sports cars that are really making any kind of money are legacy cars cars like the mustang miata and camaro these cars are very capable but part of what makes them affordable to build is the built-in market that comes with the name and a big part of that is the fact that these cars haven't really changed their formula since day one remember how up in arms people got when ford first announced a turbocharged four-cylinder mustang imagine if they announced that they'd be changing the whole look chassis and drivetrain configuration it'd be the maki all over again not that maki's a bad car they're cool but you know an suv and i know you're gonna say that the corvette did it with the c8 and everyone loves it but the c8 corvette is a bit of an anomaly it's the only recognized nameplate that has changed from front engine to mid engine in years and let's not forget that the corvette took decades to go mid-engine zora arcus duntov the belgian engineer known as the father of the corvette was pushing for mid-engine as early as 1966 and on top of all that gm ate the real cost of the c8 because at launch they were losing 20 grand per car it's a pretty big gamble and while it seems to have paid off i doubt we'll see any manufacturer do the same if you want to know more about zora arcus duntov and the story of the corvette check out our podcast on the subject pass gas i think by now that episode has come out so if an established name can't change to mid engine it's going to be a brand new car which means the marketing team is going to step in and say that they can't sell a car that no one knows about the only way any manufacturer could viably make a mid-engine car today is by reviving an old name that was already mid-engined but hold your horses because i don't see a 2022 fiera on the horizon anytime soon but none of this means that a manufacturer couldn't kick the accountants at an open window and just make one anyway maybe a manufacturer like hyundai in 2019 hyundai showed off a mid-engine track concept called the rm19 this thing has a six-speed sequential gearbox a near 50 50 weight distribution and about 400 horsepower the rm19 placed their tcr race car engine where the grocery should be in a veloster chassis and then they stiffen up the floor and gave rear axles to be a racing midship rm19 you get it but sadly that project is a one-off that won't ever see the streets and even if it wasn't i don't think it would have landed in the cheap category the rm19 wasn't built to be a road car and there would have been a lot of work to make it more practical and there's another development that is the final nail in the coffin for the cheap mid-engine car and that is electrification many manufacturers are showing off their dedication to evs by announcing their plans to eliminate internal combustion engines from their fleet mini audi jaguar and even the legendary mid-engine car makers at lotus have committed to an all-ev lineup before 2030. and the thing is when it comes to evs mid engine doesn't really matter as much the motor placement and distribution of weight in evs is totally different right now because it's no longer the motor that holds the most weight now it's the batteries themselves in cars like the tesla model s where the motor is in relation to the axle doesn't mean anything because the motor is the axle essentially and yes we are going to see some great gas powered cars in the next few years and i'm personally betting dodge wants to make a 1 000 horsepower road car before the end of the ice era but the development time on a midship platform would take years the first mule car for the c8 corvette was hand built in 2014 as a proof of concept so if someone wanted to sell a cheap dedicated midship platform as the last hurrah of the internal combustion engine with enough of a sales window to make it worth it they'd have to announce it now so it's looking like the mid-engine car has had its day and now it's time to move on to something else but you know maybe i'm wrong after all tesla's first car the tesla roadster was built on the mid-engine chassis of a lotus elise and maybe someone will give their internal combustion engines a last hurrah and a midship coupe maybe hyundai who knows maybe dodge builds uh now they they want to do that maybe we just keep them alive ourselves by working on old ones thank you very much for watching wheelhouse this week it's always an immense pleasure to make these videos for you follow donut on all social media at donut media and if you're a donut super freak consider checking out the donut underground by clicking that join button below you get access to a discord server special behind the scenes videos early access to exclusive merch and you even get a sticker how cool is that follow me on all social media as well at nolanjsykes instagram tick tock twitter i'm there wasting my time no be kind i'll see you next weekthe era of the cheap mid-engined car is dead cars like the pontiac fiero and the toyota mr2 are a thing of the past no one and i mean no one is talking about making a cheap midship car anytime soon and almost certainly never will again why is the most balanced and sporty setup for a car only reserved for supercars these days why can't a company like honda take the civic type r drivetrain drop it in the back of a dell soul-like body and sell for cheap why is a concept that seems so easy so rare and expensive well today on wheelhouse we're going to show why mid-engine cars should be really common why they're not a big thanks to helix for sponsoring today's video by now you all know my motto about sleep so say it with me sleep is the most important meal of the day and finding the right mattress for me has always been a challenge that's why i ordered a helix because in just a few clicks i'm paired with the best mattress for me helix understands that everyone is different and even developed a sleep quiz that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you i personally like a medium feel and often sleep on my tum tum so helix paired me with the helix dust lux and to prove how comfortable it is i decided to make my animated self jump out of a plane and land on it for a comfortable dramatic effect ooh that's comfy but you know what's better than finding the perfect mattress how about helix delivering it right to your front door it even comes with a 100 night sleep trial so you can be sure it's the perfect match or they'll come pick it up themselves and give you a full refund so say goodbye to uncomfortable mattresses and head on over to helixsleep.com donutmedia or click the link in the description to receive up to 200 off your mattress plus two free pillows um animator two pillows please that's more like it if you're not sure why i'm making such a big deal about mid-engine cars let me explain there's a reason that every supercar from lamborghini mclaren bugatti pagani and most ferraris are all mid-engined for sports car you want rear-wheel drive as the car accelerates the weight of the car shifts backward making the front wheels go light and the rear wheels push into the asphalt gaining traction but beyond that mid-engine cars have another advantage and that has to do with the polar moment of you know what this is getting a little too physics-y for me i'll let my fellow donut host jeremiah explain thank you nolan now the polar moment of inertia concept is an extension of isaac newton's first law of motion an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest it's resistant to change just like groomers and this is called inertia a polar moment of inertia refers to an object's resistance to rotating around an axis the axis pole in this case is the drive wheels as the engine turns one of two things is going to happen either the wheels are going to rotate or if the wheels were fixed in space the car would rotate around those wheels now the amount of force it would take to rotate the car once is measured in distance over time if all the weight of the car was at the furthest point from our access it would have to travel a further distance in the same amount of time therefore requiring more work but if all the weight were nearer to the axis it would require less work because it would travel less distance and it means a mid-engine car would be able to put more power to the ground for the same amount of work as a front engined rear-wheel drive car i hope that helps now before we get too deep into this let's look at the cheapest mid-engine cars on sale today there's a sixty thousand dollar c8 corvette retail the sixty thousand dollar porsche cayman retail and the recently discontinued alfa romeo 4c for 67 000 not exactly economy cars for comparison the 1984 pontiac fiero started at eight thousand dollars even if you adjusted for inflation you could still buy two of those for the price of a current mid-engine car even a fully specced out sw20 mr2 turbo from 1989 would have only been about 40 000 in today's money and that was the most expensive version so what gives why are all these new mid engine cars so much more expensive well it all starts with engines in the corvette the caiman and the 4c those engines are designed for their respective chassis for comparison in the fiero the mr2 and even the lotus elise that wasn't the case they all used transversely mounted engines from existing front-wheel drive cars the fiero used the same four-cylinder iron duke from the legendary pontiac 6000 le and the last mr2 that toyota made was using the same 1zzz engine from the celica gt one of my best friends in college pronounced celica cilicia i thought that was very funny see when you have a front-wheel drive car the power has to make it to the wheels that are next to the engine it goes down an axle or half shaft coming out of each side of the transmission if that car was front engine in rear wheel drive the power would have to go out the back of the transmission down the drive shaft to get to the rear differential and the rear wheels and since nearly 90 percent of cars in the us drive the front wheels in some way most engines these days are transversely mounted so to make a front engined rear wheel drive car you have to design an entirely new drivetrain which is expensive but wait what if you could just take that front engine front wheel drivetrain and drop it in the middle of a sporty coop you'd save money and you have a sporty car that enthusiasts would love seems like a no-brainer right so why is no one doing it now why can't vw stick their gti engine in the back of a jetta or maybe fiat put their barth engine in the back of a 500 where it was in the 50s well it's not that simple first is the most obvious problem the market the sports car market is already small with most enthusiast cars being hot versions of an existing platform you got your golf gti's veloster ends and civic type r's they're all based on platforms of cheaper economy cars cars that are already designed for an engine up front not only is there no space in the back but you'd have to completely redesign the chassis and the weight distribution of all the other heavy components like the fuel tank it means that you might as well be designing a dedicated platform cheap sports cars with dedicated platforms like the toyota 86 are getting more and more uncommon as new buyers don't seem to be looking for dedicated sports car unless they're in the next tier up wise toyota and subaru had to share development on the 86 and brz just so they could afford the r d the only other cheap sports cars that are really making any kind of money are legacy cars cars like the mustang miata and camaro these cars are very capable but part of what makes them affordable to build is the built-in market that comes with the name and a big part of that is the fact that these cars haven't really changed their formula since day one remember how up in arms people got when ford first announced a turbocharged four-cylinder mustang imagine if they announced that they'd be changing the whole look chassis and drivetrain configuration it'd be the maki all over again not that maki's a bad car they're cool but you know an suv and i know you're gonna say that the corvette did it with the c8 and everyone loves it but the c8 corvette is a bit of an anomaly it's the only recognized nameplate that has changed from front engine to mid engine in years and let's not forget that the corvette took decades to go mid-engine zora arcus duntov the belgian engineer known as the father of the corvette was pushing for mid-engine as early as 1966 and on top of all that gm ate the real cost of the c8 because at launch they were losing 20 grand per car it's a pretty big gamble and while it seems to have paid off i doubt we'll see any manufacturer do the same if you want to know more about zora arcus duntov and the story of the corvette check out our podcast on the subject pass gas i think by now that episode has come out so if an established name can't change to mid engine it's going to be a brand new car which means the marketing team is going to step in and say that they can't sell a car that no one knows about the only way any manufacturer could viably make a mid-engine car today is by reviving an old name that was already mid-engined but hold your horses because i don't see a 2022 fiera on the horizon anytime soon but none of this means that a manufacturer couldn't kick the accountants at an open window and just make one anyway maybe a manufacturer like hyundai in 2019 hyundai showed off a mid-engine track concept called the rm19 this thing has a six-speed sequential gearbox a near 50 50 weight distribution and about 400 horsepower the rm19 placed their tcr race car engine where the grocery should be in a veloster chassis and then they stiffen up the floor and gave rear axles to be a racing midship rm19 you get it but sadly that project is a one-off that won't ever see the streets and even if it wasn't i don't think it would have landed in the cheap category the rm19 wasn't built to be a road car and there would have been a lot of work to make it more practical and there's another development that is the final nail in the coffin for the cheap mid-engine car and that is electrification many manufacturers are showing off their dedication to evs by announcing their plans to eliminate internal combustion engines from their fleet mini audi jaguar and even the legendary mid-engine car makers at lotus have committed to an all-ev lineup before 2030. and the thing is when it comes to evs mid engine doesn't really matter as much the motor placement and distribution of weight in evs is totally different right now because it's no longer the motor that holds the most weight now it's the batteries themselves in cars like the tesla model s where the motor is in relation to the axle doesn't mean anything because the motor is the axle essentially and yes we are going to see some great gas powered cars in the next few years and i'm personally betting dodge wants to make a 1 000 horsepower road car before the end of the ice era but the development time on a midship platform would take years the first mule car for the c8 corvette was hand built in 2014 as a proof of concept so if someone wanted to sell a cheap dedicated midship platform as the last hurrah of the internal combustion engine with enough of a sales window to make it worth it they'd have to announce it now so it's looking like the mid-engine car has had its day and now it's time to move on to something else but you know maybe i'm wrong after all tesla's first car the tesla roadster was built on the mid-engine chassis of a lotus elise and maybe someone will give their internal combustion engines a last hurrah and a midship coupe maybe hyundai who knows maybe dodge builds uh now they they want to do that maybe we just keep them alive ourselves by working on old ones thank you very much for watching wheelhouse this week it's always an immense pleasure to make these videos for you follow donut on all social media at donut media and if you're a donut super freak consider checking out the donut underground by clicking that join button below you get access to a discord server special behind the scenes videos early access to exclusive merch and you even get a sticker how cool is that follow me on all social media as well at nolanjsykes instagram tick tock twitter i'm there wasting my time no be kind i'll see you next week