Why Does the Porsche 911 Have a Rear-Engine?
Engineering Explained breaks down the benefits behind Porsche’s rear-engine placement.
When it comes to the Porsche, she’s gotta pack much back. And while Fonda ain’t got a motor in the back of her Honda, neither do many other cars. But the Porsche 911 has been rocking a rear-engine for years, and, other than looking very cool, what is the real reason it is designed that way?
Our friends over at Engineering Explained tackled this in their latest video. Host Jason Fenske gets a chance to also drive some sweet 911s in the snow. Fenske, as usual, provides a thorough and interesting explanation for the rear-engine.
Fenske prefaces the video by saying that yes, placing the engine behind the rear axle can sometimes make the Porsche less eager to turn. And sometimes it can have a tendency to oversteer as the heavy rear end wants to come out in front. But with some practice and understanding behind the mechanics, you find the benefits are many and certainly make these minor and fixable issues. As if driving a Porsche ever needs improvement!
He breaks it down into 4 different scenarios. The first is braking. With 60% of the weight in the rear, Porsche has an advantage because it puts less weight on the front tires versus other sports cars. All in all there is much more even distribution. The second scenario is acceleration. When the G-force transfers weight to the rear, the maximum acceleration force is greater because there is less weight to transfer to the rear tire. Plus the Porsche will accelerate faster because there is more weight on the wheel doing the acceleration.
