[Info-vax] BASIC compiler in the hobbyist distribution

[Paul Sture]

On 2015-05-27, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply)
<helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de> wrote:
> In article <ivbg3c-tkr.ln1 at news.chingola.ch>, Paul Sture
><nospam at sture.ch> writes: 
>
>> One famous case is of course Porsche, who persevered with an inherently
>> unstable design (rear mounted engine) and made it work.
>
> It is not inherently unstable, otherwise they couldn't have made it
> work.  Yes, if one puts the engine in the rear and doesn't change
> anything else, the car will oversteer, but this has been long since
> corrected.  However, this is actually the best design.  First, you want
> the engine on top of the powered wheels, so (ignoring 4WD), that means
> in the front for front-wheel drive and in the back for rear-wheel drive.
> However, for front-wheel drive, this means that you have to steer the
> powered wheels, which is not optimal.  So, the Porsche (or Beetle, for 
> that matter) has the engine on top of the powered wheels, which gives 
> better traction because of the weight and has a much shorter drive 
> train.  The unpowered wheels are steered.  

Did you ever drive a Beetle at speed with a cross wind?  The NSUs were
bad as well (bar the TT model which IIRC competed in rallies).

The problem was where the engine overhung to the rear of the wheels.
It's still a matter of debate as the following thread demonstrates:

<http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/594813-lead-weights-front-bumpers.html>

Weights and later batteries at the front of the car.  Moving the rear
wheels and adjustments to the suspension seem to have been the real
answer.

-- 
I don't know what the language of the year 2000 will look like, but I
know it will be called Fortran.                    -- Tony Hoare 1982