rear engine versus mid engine?

Yep, why my lid is in a bag behind the seat when I am hauling a bike to the track.

I am reminded every time I run my pre-gen Ninja. On a cold start it idles at 5500 rpm with full choke, but dies on anything less until fully warmed up.

On a small car they are not needed, and you have better feel without them.

Of course, the champion for ridiculous over-engineering goes to BMW, who put servo-assisted brakes on some R-series; not to mention you then have nearly no braking with the engine off - makes unloading off a trailer or ramp a bit too exciting.

Been there, done that. Drove a 1972 camper (in 1987) that between the brakes, the lack of suspension damping, and the huge amount of steering slop scared me going downhill at 60 mph. And on a 6% uphill grade, it was foot to the floor in 2nd gear for speeds under 30 mph.

As long as there is not a stick figure family in the rear window. ;)

better feel for sure. but on a fwd civic, even with skinny tires, city parking is a pita. i'm a big guy, but i can't say i enjoy grunting that wheel without power steering if i have a parking space with only 6" to spare.

electric assist should in theory be optimum because you can effectively turn it off when not required and not be loading the engine unnecessarily like an hydraulic system. and without hydraulic rams to move about, should be a lot more sensitive when "au naturel".

remember it well. and it was a '72 twin single choke carbs with a common single idle circuit. bought it for $150 because some clown had knocked out the idle circuit blanking plug. had to close it off again with a bashed-up fishing weight to get it to run. then had to rebuild the slop out of the butterfly shafts - absolutely no chance of balancing it until that was done. no bushings on the shafts, just direct contact to the die-casting, hence the wear. complete p.o.s.

run with it dude - just have one daddy, 5 mommies and 27 kids!

I wasn't real interested in that one. A 1970 GTV would have been my dream car.

That would be the one. I recommend that people who enjoy their legs look elsewhere.

No doubt about it - it's an improvement.

That old Van Wagon could have been a great base for an old-style sports car. It's a body and frame construction and the frame is a nice one. It's got the engine set way back behind the front wheels. If you put the driver somewhere near the rear wheels with a snazzy body, you could have something really cool with a great layout and a very short 88 in. wheelbase. I don't know why no one has done this - it seems like a no-brainer.

yes, they're yummy, but my point was that the gta is the aluminum lightweight version of the gtv. or so i've been lead to believe.

Indeed GTA 163hp over 1600lbs ! Sweet. Or should I say dolce.