So what happened to the rear engine idea?
In 1931 the first rear engine in an integral-frame bus was introduced.
"We saw its rear engine in flames," said Samir Hossein, 15, a Gonesse student who was playing tennis nearby.
The front engine was articulated, or hinge-connected to the frame of the rear engine, so that the very large locomotive could negotiate curves.
The Big Boy locomotives had an articulated design; the frame of the front engine was hinge-connected to the rear engine under a single boiler.
The car was partly shaped by the change from the original Beetle's configuration (rear engine, rear drive, air-cooled) to the more conventional modern format (front engine, front drive, water-cooled).
The three cars I drove (the Germans describe the layout as Heckmotor, or rear engine) included a 1935 130 Cabrio-Limousine, a 1934 150 Sport Roadster and a 1936 170 H Cabrio-Limousine.
Beyond its size and distinctive silhouette, the car's air-cooled rear engine marked the VW as an unorthodox automobile in a country where Detroit's increasingly large and expensive vehicles provided an overpowering technical and aesthetic backdrop.
Detroit's increasingly baroque creations, then, provided the lavish context that marked the small "Volks" with its rounded body and thirty- six-horsepower rear engine as a "cute" car.
At the time, Mr. Schilperoord said, Ganz was the only one arguing for a combination of tubular chassis, rear engine, streamlined body and independent suspension — a formula that would produce a light, affordable family car.
