dj.ctwatt

History lesson LEARNED! Salamat good sir.

mmarshall

The early rear-engined Auto-Union racing cars were a real handful for all but the world's most expert racing drivers of their time.....and then, even some of them, such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Wilbur Shaw, and Maury Post, refused to drive them. The rear-mounted drivetrain, tail-heaviness, and primitive race-car suspensions and tires compared to today meant not only lousy tracking and stability but a lot of spin-outs and rollovers. Despite the popularity of rear-engined Porsche motorsports in the 1950's, ( James Dean drove a 356 Speedster at a local CA race track ) it was not until the 1960's that rear-engined racing cars became sopisticated and stable enough to win major races....starting at Indy, replacing the famous front-engine Offenhousers.