Cars of the i$6o's 47 



lem will be solved by the building of lighter engines. William 

 "Bill" Stout says the rear-engined car can be cooled efficiently 

 if the motor is installed lengthwise instead of sidewise. His 

 rear-engined Scarab, which was built in 1935, used a Ford 

 V-8 motor, with cooling solution sealed in, and ventilation 

 vanes built into the engine housing. A "pancake" motor could 

 be cooled by bringing the air down from a grille in front of 

 the car and passing it to the motor through a tube running 

 under the floor. Some critics of rear-engine installation agree 

 that if a compact air-cooled engine is generally adopted it 

 could be placed anywhere. 



Mr. Stout reminds us that the first cars had their engines 

 in the rear; but the manufacturers abandoned the idea because 

 they could not drop the notion, says Stout, that a car was 

 really a buggy, with an engine instead of a horse between the 

 shafts. 



Stout insists that the rear-engine car is safer, having less 

 tendency to skid because the additional weight gives the rear 

 tires a better grip on the road than does today's front-engined 

 car. "Even on ice," he adds, "I find it easy to maintain trac- 

 tion in this car the Scarab which I have driven 125,000 

 miles. With the weight in back, the rear seat ride will be the 

 best ride in the car. In front-engined cars the best ride is given 

 the engine, and the passengers take the bumps. ... At the 

 same time, the front end is light enough so that if you run off 

 the slab onto soft spots beside the highway there will be no 

 tendency for the front wheels to bury themselves in the mud 

 and put the car out of control." 



Engineers may continue to argue over where the engine 

 should be placed. But they all agree that it should be improved. 

 "The present engine," declares Fred M. Zeder, "weighs five 

 times as much per horsepower as the aviation engine. . . . 

 We can go as far as we want in weight reduction of auto- 

 mobile engines. In fact, it's possible to eliminate 250 of the 



