Before Kinja shuts Oppo down, I’ve decided to go ahead and hit Publish on a bunch of my old drafts that I never got around to completing. Some of these are going to be a little rough, so be prepared for unfinished rambling trains of thought, run-on and dead-end sentences, and lazily pasted comments that I meant to expand upon.
When it comes down to it, cars have three basic compartments: A place for the engine, a place for driver & passengers, and a place for cargo.
The classic front-engine, rear-cargo layout that places passengers in the middle of the car is hard to beat. Technically it’s a compromise, when you compare it to more purpose-built vehicles, like sports cars and tractor-trucks. But it’s an ideal compromise, and it works very well for most users.
Having passengers in the middle of the car is a great advantage. Not only does it lend a significant degree of safety to all, it’s also a great vantage point for the driver. While a cab-forward design does grant the driver good visibility, it requires one to be extra mindful of the vehicle’s extra rearward length. And as for placing the driver all the way at the rear, that would complicate the driver’s ability to judge where the front bumper is.
When it comes to cargo, the rear of the car is by far the best place for it. This is especially true when you’re dealing with oversized items that may require the trunk to be open to some degree.
For most cars, the front will remain the best place for the engine. For many decades, the mechanical heart of the car has needed its own place. By having the engine in the front of the vehicle, that space is spoken for, and crumple zones are able to function as designed without any random cargo complicating things.
I imagine that having 2000 pounds in the middle of the car would still be better for stability than having 1000 pounds up front and 1000 pounds in the rear. Either method will get you that 50/50 weight distribution, but the arrangement of mass and weight in a car gets into some of the deeper aspects of car physics that I’ve never really explored.
At any rate, that stuff really only becomes important in serious racing, not so much in everyday driving. I like racing stuff, but normal practicality is much more important to me, and that’s part of why I could never see myself owning something like a Cayman. That car has storage in both front and rear, but adding up the cubic feet of cargo space doesn’t give it the same capabilities of one large trunk.