Front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout

In automotive design, an FR, or front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout is one where the engine is located at the front of the vehicle and driven wheels are located at the rear. This was the traditional automobile layout for most of the 20th century. Modern designs commonly use the front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout (FF).

The first FR car was an 1895 Panhard model, so this layout was known as the "Système Panhard" in the early years. The layout has the advantage of minimizing mechanical complexity, as it allows the transmission to be placed in-line with the engine output shaft, spreading weight under the vehicle. In comparison, a vehicle with the engine over the driven wheels eliminates the need for the drive shaft (replacing this with the transaxle of lighter combined weight), but has the disadvantage of concentrating all the weight in one location.

In order to reduce the relative weight of the drive shaft, the transmission was normally split into two parts: the gearbox and the final drive. The gearbox was normally produced with its highest gear being 1:1, which offers some mechanical advantages. The final drive, in the rear axle, would then reduce this to the most appropriate speed for the wheels. As power is the product of torque and angular velocity, spinning the shaft faster for any given power reduces the torque and allows a lighter shaft construction.

In an era when gasoline was cheap and cars were heavy, the mechanical advantages of the FR drivetrain layout made up for any disadvantage in weight terms. It remained almost universal among car designs until the 1970s.

After the Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the 1979 fuel crises, a majority of American FR vehicles (station wagons and luxury sedans) were phased out for the FF layout – this trend would spawn the SUV-van conversion market. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most American companies set as a priority the eventual removal of rear-wheel drive from their mainstream and luxury lineup. Chrysler went 100% FF by 1990 and GM's American production went entirely FF by 1997 except the Corvette, Firebird and Camaro. Ford's Mustang has stayed rear-wheel drive, as it must maintain a sporty presence, as were Ford's full-size cars based on the Ford Panther platform (the Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, and Lincoln Town Car) until they were discontinued in 2011 in favour of the Ford Taurus, which has a transverse front-wheel-drive layout.

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