Quote:
Originally Posted by fatoni
i dont really understand the boxer motor. i have yet to see any of the advantages the motor provides pay a significant dividends. the evos have tall i4s and i fail to see anything subaru have an advantage. it also makes things complicated with plumbing and having two cylinder heads. vettes seem low slung enough and they fit a 6l v8 under there...
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by NESW20
however, the subarus you're referring to have the engines WAY farther forward than the evos. the ft86 will have the engine very very low, and very far back.
toyota understands how critical it is to get the CG low and centralized.
|
It's all about packaging. The Evo is based on a transverse FWD chassis whereas the Subaru boxer is longitude and uses a symmetrical AWD for everything which by design requires the engine to sit pretty far forward as NESW20 mentioned.
V config engines are popular because they are compact especially for RWD chassis layouts. The V4 has become extinct/rare, the last V4 that I know of was the Ford Essex and that was almost 15 maybe 20 years ago now. So it only makes sense that instead of a standard straight 4 or making a V4 from scratch that Toyota used a flat 4 from Subaru to fit in such a compact layout. For a car as small as the FT-86, it makes a big difference. Compare 4 banger cars like the Miata, the Silvias, etc to a regular transverse econobox and the longitude engine takes a lot of extra sheet metal to surround those engines.
At least that is how I understood their reasoning.