Car with both Transverse & Longitudinal engine options?

[Pericoloso]

TooMany2cvs said:

Pericoloso said:

RedSwede said:

Saab 900, for the Longitudinal, FWD thing.

Every SAAB ,until the 9000 appeared in 1985

Some of the two-smokes were transverse.

Didn't know that ,they're so small its difficult to tell.

I was never clued up on cars that early.

[samoht]

The Fiat Cinquecento was apparently also available in Poland with the longitudinal 2-pot from the 126 up front.

InitialDave said:

Ah, I forgot they did that. That was basically the 126 gubbins stuck in the front, wasn't it?

[InitialDave]

samoht said:

The Fiat Cinquecento was apparently also available in Poland with the longitudinal 2-pot from the 126 up front.

Interesting! They built a load of 126s in Poland, I believe. Wouldn't surprise me if it were some kind of localisation tax break/kickback at work with that.

[samoht]

2Btoo said:

Didn't some models of Ford Transit have differing engine directions?

(I could be wrong.)

Since 2000. The short-wheelbase ones are transverse FF, the long-wheelbase ones longitudinal FR. Apparently at some point Ford engineers showed off their ability to convert a van from FF to FR in just a few hours, re-mounting the engine and adding a driveshaft.

[njw1]

samoht said:

2Btoo said:

Didn't some models of Ford Transit have differing engine directions?

(I could be wrong.)

Since 2000. The short-wheelbase ones are transverse FF, the long-wheelbase ones longitudinal FR. Apparently at some point Ford engineers showed off their ability to convert a van from FF to FR in just a few hours, re-mounting the engine and adding a driveshaft.

^^Typically this is correct but there are plenty of fwd long wheelbases and rwd short wheelbases (think rac van) out there too, oh, and the odd 4wd!

[AppleJuice]

2Btoo said:

Didn't some models of Ford Transit have differing engine directions?

(I could be wrong.)

Likewise the Renault Master etc. transversely mounted for FWD and longitudinally mounted for RWD.

[BiggestVern]

Krikkit said:

daniel1920 said:

kambites said:

No, they're all longitudinal.

Really? Longitudinal FWD must be fairly rare, but that's a bit off topic

It is, I think only Audi has done it in the last 30 years.

This dates from the late 50's when Daimler owned what was then still Auto-Union and sold 2-stroke engined DKW's. To take the marque upmarket they designed a 2 litre 4-stroke to fit the platform and renamed the cars Audi, a dormant marque dating from Auto-Union's past.

In order to fit the engine in the space and still drive the front wheels, it got mounted in the nose of the car, ahead of the front wheels..
Audi's MLB platform still uses this layout to this day for the range from A4 to A8 including "Q" models. (Also Porsche Cayenne and Macan).

[TwoStrokeNut]

J4CKO said:

Stretching it, Elise and Hennessy Venom ?

Elise is transverse and the Venom is Elise-ish based but with a longitudinal engine.

Or you might as well go back to the much cooler Esthi variants, if we exclude the GT1 car.

[Tannedbaldhead]

gazza285 said:

Triumph 1500 was available with both.

Also came in front and rear wheel drive versions. FWD was originally the Toledo. It then became the Dolomite 1500. The rear drive 1500 was the Dolomite 1500HL. It looked identical to the Sprint.