Each has its own pros and cons.


Rear engine does provide much better traction when accelerating from a stand still. It also allows for back seats????


Certainly makes it an interesting car to drive. Who wouldn't want to go to an empty parking lot with a 911 and do some 720s? I know my Boxster never wants to spin.

 

Your young and probably haven't driven both at the their limit... go drive both a 911 and a mid-engine Porsche... you will feel what we are talking about... the mid-engine is a better platform. Porsche's 911 platform is so good because it has been perfected by over 50 years of evolving engineering. A 911 uses it's rear engine to help put its power down faster coming out of a turn where traction and the speed at which you can safely input throttle is pivotal AND for near perfect balance of weight during braking (nose dive during braking balances the rear weight bias)... the midengine platform allows for a similar traction out of a turn but much better balance overall during turn in. There is a reason Formula car's are mid-engine...

So yeah your right mid-engine is a better layout, but you are comparing the pinnacle of rear engine street car engineering to a honestly middle of the pack level mid-engine car.

I love my mid-engined boxster... it drives at the track like its on rails... especially with my massive suspension upgrades, and I have been waved around by GT3's before... but I would take a GT3 in a heart beat... no question there... Im not the best 911 driver around. Im much more comfortable in my 986S, but I can all but guarantee I would be faster on any track in a GT3 than in my 986S. And I eat Cayman S's for lunch out there... My setup is by far good enough to make up for my loss in mid-range torque with a stock Cayman S.

 

That's b/c your boxster doesn't have enough HP... do you see Rear engine drift cars? Breaking the rears loose is done best with big HP engines and a light weight rear end (240's, vipers, mustangs... etc.)

 

HP has nothing to do with what I'm talking about.


Have you ever auto-crossed?



Find an empty parking lot where you live. Get up to about 40mph, then turn the wheel all the way to the left and pull the e-brake mid-turn. Your car should do a 540.


That particular situation is dependent upon vehicle speed, not HP.

 

Mid-engined cars love to snap spin. I used to snap spin my boxster quite a bit when I was still relatively new to autoX and time trials. One second you are planted, then you put a foot wrong and ZING! You are gone. I don't know all the science behind it, but I know it involves a low polar moment of inertia, which mid-engined cars have in abundance.

 

I know that no matter how hard I drove at an AX, I could never make my car spin. It would always, in one way or another, regain form, even if it went off course.


It's weird because I've seen second generation Miatas spin a few times (stock or mainly stock) but not mine.

 

Ok thanks for the advice... So did you learn that on the first or second Fast and Furious? only kidding.

Yeah Ive autocrossed, but not in my Boxster... I only run it on the track. I understand what you are saying about a snap turn... I'm very familar... but you said nothing about autocrossing or snap turns in your post... just pulling 720's, which I read as donuts... WHICH is best to have more HP. And I have snap spun in my boxster multiple times... Most of the time unintentional... you have to have to be moving though which is the speed thing you are talking about... which speed of course ultimately goes back to HP. But moral of the story is that...

Yes the rear engine layout is harder to break the wheels loose due to its rear weight over its rear wheels... but once it does get moving without traction it has a lot of momentum that can allow you to pull your 720's... Yeah Ive seen those Mischief DVD's too... mid engine will spin and so will a 911... but with the front wheels stationary? good luck... for that (as I was saying) you need alot of HP.