Ford rear mounted engine

[Modlbldr]

Other than the GT and GT 40 did Ford ever build a rear mounted engine? If so, what kit has it? I have been thinking about this and can't recall any. I want to do a mid mounted two seat Fox Mustang that Steve Stanford drew. The kit would have to be 1/24.

Later-

[slantasaurus]

There was the 1962 Mustang II show car/concept that was made into a kit by Lindberg (was this originally an IMC tooling??) but thats the only other one I can think of. I'm not sure what engine it had though, 260 maybe, I'm sure someone who has built the kit will jump in.

[Chuck Most]

Those are about it. There was the RS200, but that was mid-engine. There was also the Festiva Shogun, but I don't know if that one was actually built by Ford or if it was done by an outside concern.

[Jantrix]

Nothing comes to mind. DeTomaso USED a Ford for it's mid-engined Pantera, and there was an assortment of Indy cars throughout racing history, but as for production cars..............not much. There was the Ford Mystere concept car http://www.thelynxproject.org/X-Cars/x-cars.html and the '62 Mustang concept http://silodrome.com/the-1962-ford-mustang-i-prototype/ but that's all I could find and nothing made it past the concept phase.

[tim boyd]

Just a quick headsup here...the original Mustang concept vehicle was a midship mounted four cylinder (actually a V4 IIRC), but that was not the vehicle kitted by IMC/Testors/Lingberg. THAT vehicle was the Mustang II Concept, which was a slightly exagerrated version of the real Mustang production car, that was unveiled about six months (roughly) before the production debut. That concept has a very nice 289 Ford with several induction options in the kit, but it is a normal front engine/rear drive configuration.

TB

PS - if it were me, I'd use the 2004 Ford GT powertrain in yoru Fox buildup. Again, IIRC, the Polar Lights GT kit has a reasonably accurate though simplified engine....someone correct me on this if I;m wrong, please! TB

[Ace-Garageguy]

Many mid-engined racing and one-off cars have used the 'big' Hewland gearbox. It could of course be adapted to ANY engine using suitable adapter plates. It also has provisions for hanging suspension from it, as it could function as a structural frame element too.

The Accurate Miniatures 1/24 McLaren M8s have exqusite Hewlands and rear suspension, all hung from a bulkhead that would make a pretty easy basis for a mid-engined anything. The big-block Chevy engine can easily be replaced with a Ford, or whatever.

The Pantera uses a big ZF gearbox. Early Ford GT40s used a Colotti gearbox which was plagued with problems and was replaced by the ZF. A lot of GT40 replicas, all mid-engined of course, have been fitted with VW and Porsche transaxles (instead of the very expensive ZF), suitably modified for reverse-rotation in a mid-engine application. You have a lot of choices for building a technically correct mid-engined car.

A 4-speed VW beetle transaxle, and available mods to make it a 5-speed, will work fine in a 4-cyl. or low horsepower V8 mid-engine application. Some have to be run inverted, and in some you simply swap the ring gear from one side to the other to get it to work backwards. The Porsche 914 gearbox is also suitable for a smallish V8, if driven with a little sense. Corvair gearboxes have also been used in mid-engine applications. Later model Porsche 911 transaxles have also been used sucessfully in one-off mid engined cars.

Images of all of these are available via google, and any of them could be suitable for a correct one-off.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Ace-Garageguy

[Modlbldr]

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I'll be looking for the parts from the M8 when I get around to it.

Later-