How does performance differ between front, mid, and rear engine vehicles?

Answer 1

I have never driven a mid-engine vehicle. I have driven autos that have rear engines and those that have front engines. Since people's preferences differ, check on Yahoo.com and put in the following search words: mid engine vehicles, rear engine vehicles and also check all the major car shows. Check out performance charts and also the comparisons and differences. Since no two people drive alike, go test drive your self before you make a decision. If you are a person who brakes around corners, you definitely DO NOT want a rear engine vehicle.
Boaz.

Answer 2

It all depends on what you mean by "performance."

An ability to go fast is not affected that much by the placement of the engine. The big difference is weight distribution which makes difference when you make a turn.

When you make a turn and when tires start to slip, grip of the tires at all 4 wheels being equal, the part that weigh the most will start to slip first. This will in turn become "understeer", "oversteer", and "neutral steer." If you have 50/50 weight distribution from front to back, you are likely to have the neutral steer where both wheel slip at the same rate, which will give you the neutral steer.

In neutral steer, the amount of input you give to the steering wheel will result in the equal amount of turning of the car. In understeer, your car turns less. In oversteer, your car turns more. The extreme case of oversteer is, your tail goes out of control and spin.

Actually, you can feel this a little even when you don't drive agressively, as your tires are almost always slipping when you make a turn. (a little)

Is this what you wanted to know?

Answer 3

ok... First... to make differences like this on a the front eng. fwd vehicle, you're speaking about significant engineering. to remodel a the front engine to mid engine, invloves transferring the finished motor assembly. this would modify the vehicle's middle of gravity and also you may favor to make significant suspension differences to catch up on the burden shift... now to not teach the interest of genuinely mounting the engine, fabricating some type of transmission, pressure axle set up and a sparkling the front suspension/guidance set up. really, you're construction a sparkling vehicle. you'll sink untols thousands right into a vehicle which could be a substandard performer. for sure an engineered mid engine rwd vehicle is a extra special performer, the middle of gravity is in a extra efficient position and think ofyou've got good traction on the pressure wheels. There are already mid engine rear wheel drives accessible. Toyota MR2, maximum Porsches, Renault Clio, etc. purchase this kind of and overlook about attempting to remodel what you've into what you want.