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The Volvo Museum was a treasure trove of the brand’s finest machinery.

Now permanently closed with many of the exhibits transferred to the new World of Volvo, the museum showed the brand made more than just bricks. It’s true that, even with its classic cars, the company often put a much greater emphasis on safety than on design.

But it has also shown a tremendous amount of creativity since its inception in 1927 - with many classic Volvos sporting stunning exteriors. Walking through the official Volvo museum in Gothenburg, Sweden, reveals how decision-makers injected performance and luxury into the brand’s line-up without diluting its image.

Let’s take a look:

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ÖV 4 (1927)

Volvo made its first series-produced car, the ÖV 4, on 14 April 1927. Sales manager Hilmer Johansson got behind the wheel of car number one to ceremoniously drive it off the assembly line and quickly noticed it only moved backwards.

The differential gear in the rear axle had been installed improperly. Shop foreman Johan Fingal fixed the car in 10 minutes and the celebrations carried on as planned. Volvo made 204 ÖV 4s between 1927 and 1929. Only a small handful survive today.

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PV 36 (1935)

Introduced in 1935, the daring PV 36 looked markedly different than Volvo’s other models. It wore an aerodynamic design characterized by headlights integrated into the body and covered rear wheels.

Many motorists found the look too futuristic and difficult to get used to. The PV 36 – which earned the nickname Carioca – was also heavy, underpowered and expensive. Production ended after Volvo made about 500 examples over a three-year period.

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PV 444 (1947)

Per-Åke Fröberg, Volvo’s head of heritage, told Autocar the game-changing PV 444 was ready in 1944 but production didn’t start until 1947 due to a labor shortage caused by World War II. The firm had over 10,000 orders to fill at home and abroad when it started making the PV 444.

The PV 444 – which later morphed into the PV 544 – deserves credit for putting Volvo on the map in the United States. Sales in America officially began in 1955 and it became the second best-selling European car (behind the Volkswagen Beetle) in California two years later.

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PV 61 (1949)

Volvo continued offering bare chassis into the 1950s. Most examples were transformed into pickup trucks, delivery vans, or ambulances but a small handful were promised a more exotic life as stylish convertibles prized by Sweden’s jet-setters.

This PV 61 was turned into a roadster by Stockholm-based coachbuilder Nordbergs in 1949 and fully restored by Volvo.

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Philip (1953)

In the 1950s, decades before the term ‘Scandinavian design’ became marketable internationally, Volvo designers often looked across the Atlantic for inspiration. The 1953 Philip prototype looked like an American car with its generous dimensions and big chromed bumpers on both ends.

It drove like one, too, because it used a 120hp V8 engine designed in-house by Volvo. The firm notes the Philip remained a one-off model because it would have cost far too much to mass-produce. The V8 engine later powered trucks and boats, however.

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Sport (1954)

On paper, Volvo’s first sports car closely resembled the original Chevrolet Corvette. Called Sport, it took the form of a two-seater roadster with a fiberglass body, an eye-catching exterior design and wall-to-wall leather upholstery inside.

Assar Gabrielsson, Volvo’s co-founder and CEO in the early 1950s, commissioned the car after taking a trip to the United States in 1953. Production started the following year and ended in 1957.

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Sport (1954)

The Sport sold poorly because it was expensive, it suffered from quality problems and Swedish motorists showed little interest in buying a roadster they'd have to park half the year in order to avoid hypothermia. 

Volvo made 67 examples of the Sport, and it’s the only Volvo ever made with a fiberglass body.

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P1800 prototype (1958)

The memorably ill-fated Sport didn’t discourage Volvo from trying to make a name for itself in the sports car segment. In 1958, it showed a prototype called P1800 that accurately previewed a sporty coupe introduced in 1961.

The differences between the prototype and the production model were minor; early cars even came with two-piece bumpers.

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Rally-winning PV 544 (1965)

Brothers Joginder and Jaswant Singh won the 13th edition of the grueling East African Safari Rally in this purpose-built PV 544.

The modifications included squeezing more power out of the four-cylinder engine, adding stronger suspension components and fitting thick skid plates below the vital mechanical components.

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Rocket (1967)

Jan Wilsgaard, the head of Volvo’s design department, began working on a successor to the P1800 in the 1960s.

He considered two different options. The first wore a more conservative design that fell in line with what buyers broadly expected from Volvo. The second took the brand into uncharted territory. Officials couldn’t decide between the two so Volvo asked Italian coachbuilder Frua to build a drivable prototype.

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Rocket (1967)

Called Rocket, Frua’s prototype looked like a P1800 from the tip of the front bumper to the B-pillar. Beyond that, it received a longer roof line, an upswept rear overhang and a glass hatch underlined by horizontal lights.

Frua’s Rocket looked too extreme to fit into the Volvo line-up so Wilsgaard’s team selected the first option and fine-tuned it into the P1800 ES.

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164 (1968)

The 164 stood out as the first Volvo offered with a six-cylinder engine since 1950. The example displayed in the company’s museum is the first one made when series production started in 1968.

The firm notes the car spent much of its early life in Belgium. It joined Volvo’s collection during the 1980s with about 50,000 miles on the clock.

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VESC (1972)

The Volvo Experimental Safety Car (VESC) explored ways to make driving safer. Bumpers with seven inches of travel protected the sheet metal in the event of a low-speed collision.

Volvo installed front and rear airbags plus motor mounts designed to push the engine under the passenger compartment in a crash. Its most innovative feature was a rear-view camera provided by Mitsubishi Electric. It transferred footage to a television-like screen on the dashboard.

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244 (1974)

Some of the safety features baked into the VESC trickled down to the 200 series, an evolution of the 100 series with bigger bumpers, an improved chassis and a more contemporary-looking design.

The line-up included two- and four-door models plus a spacious station wagon. Volvo made 2.8 million examples of the 200 series between 1974 and 1993.

In hindsight, it almost single-handedly cemented the company's reputation for building safe, solid cars.

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66 (1976)

Volvo received the 66 when it purchased the car-building division of Holland-based DAF in 1975. Its version of the car received minor design tweaks and several significant safety upgrades like new seats with integrated headrests and a so-called safety steering wheel.

There were no major mechanical changes; the 66 carried on with a Renault-sourced four-cylinder engine that spun the rear wheels through a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Production ended in 1978.

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343 (1976)

Volvo’s purchase of DAF also included an unfinished project called 77. It was a brand-new car that shared almost no parts with the 66 or its predecessor, the 55.

Volvo finished the design and re-named the car 343. It went on sale across Europe in 1976 with a four-cylinder engine and a CVT.

The line-up later grew to include more powerful engines and, by popular demand, a conventional five-speed manual transmission.

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Electric prototype (1976)

Volvo’s 90-inch long electric prototype could have become the Smart Fortwo of the 1970s.

It’s one of two experimental battery-powered city cars tested on the public roads around Volvo's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company quickly shelved the project because both prototypes were surprisingly heavy, excruciatingly slow and offered a limited driving range.

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262C (1977)

Volvo envisioned the 262C as a replacement for the P1800 ES. The two-door, four-seater flagship model was based on the 200 series and received the top-spec PRV V6 engine.

The list of standard features included leather upholstery, power steering, power windows, power mirrors and a three-speed automatic transmission. Early cars came with silver paint and a black vinyl roof while later ones were offered in metallic gold without the vinyl.

Bertone made 6622 examples of the 262C between 1977 and 1981. 75% of the production run went to the United States and only 200 cars were sold new in Sweden.

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760 (1982)

Volvo remembers it held product clinics for the first time while developing the 700 series.

The valuable feedback gathered from participants helped the firm understand what prospective buyers liked and didn’t like about the car and make changes before it arrived in showrooms.

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Light Component Project (1983)

Volvo built the Light Component Project (LCP) prototype to illustrate ways to make lighter, more efficient cars. This ground-breaking machine made its debut in Stockholm in 1983.

Volvo replaced iron and steel with lighter materials like aluminum, magnesium and composites. It notably made the doors out of carbon fiber, a material almost exclusively reserved for expensive race cars in the early 1980s.

Shedding weight allowed the LCP to use a relatively small 66hp three-cylinder diesel engine without sacrificing acceleration or top speed.

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240 Turbo Racing (1985)

In the 1980s, Sweden’s turbocharged car of choice wore a Saab emblem on the grille. Volvo nonetheless jumped on the forced-induction bandwagon in 1981 when it released the 240 Turbo.

It started racing the car in 1984 and sponsored two factory teams the following year in an all-out attempt to win the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Volvo took home the driver’s championship in 1985 after drivers Gianfranco Brancatelli and Thomas Lindström won six of the 14 races held that year.

The win almost didn’t happen, however. Race officials nearly kicked Volvo out of the series after questioning whether the firm had truly built the 500 cars required for homologation. Volvo executives famously waited until the end of their summer break to clear the company’s name.

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780 (1985)

Volvo again asked for Bertone’s help when it began the process of turning the 760 into a two-door luxury car. Presented at the 1985 Geneva auto show, the 780 arrived with an elegant design that arguably gave it a more balanced look than the 262C, its predecessor.

Volvo offered a high level of equipment and either a four- or a six-cylinder engine. Bertone made 8500 examples of the 780 until 1990. Most of the production run went to the United States and Japan.

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480 (1986)

Volvo broke new ground when it introduced the 480 at the 1986 Geneva auto show. The sharp, wedge-shaped model was the firm’s first series-produced front-wheel drive car.

The 480 complied with American regulations (hence the five-mph bumpers and the light reflectors on both ends) but Volvo abruptly canceled its plans to sell the car across the Atlantic due to the disadvantageous krona-dollar exchange rate.

76,375 examples of the 480 rolled off the assembly line between 1986 and 1995. The example displayed in Volvo’s museum is the very last one made.

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480 Cabriolet (1990)

Volvo made and tested a few examples of the topless 480 but ultimately canned the project. The 480’s aborted US launch likely had a significant influence on Volvo’s decision to cancel the convertible because America would have been the model’s biggest market by a long shot.

The company also remembers that several suppliers who participated in the project filed for bankruptcy during the model's testing phase.

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850 BTCC (1994)

Volvo raised eyebrows when it entered a pair of 850s in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in 1994.

No one had dared go racing with a long-roof model before. Volvo’s entry did its best to fend off fierce competition from rivals such as the Alfa Romeo 155 TS, the Ford Mondeo, the Vauxhall Cavalier and the BMW 318i with 280hp from a five-cylinder engine. The team finished the 1994 season in eighth place.

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850 T-5R (1995)

The 850 T-5R was Volvo’s performance hero during the 1990s.

It packed a 240hp punch from a 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine. Volvo quoted a 0-62mph time of 6.9sec, which was quick enough to worry the competition from Germany, and yellow paint and a model-specific body kit let other motorists know they weren’t looking at a run-of-the-mill 850.

Volvo intended to build 2500 examples of the T-5R. The initial production run sold out quickly so it made 2500 additional T-5Rs painted in black and nearly 800 cars finished in olive green.

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XC90 Lego (2004)

This is the lightest XC90 that Volvo has ever built. It’s a life-sized model made with no less than 201,076 Lego bricks.

It’s hollow – it’d be a lot heavier otherwise – and the plastic body sits on an actual XC90 chassis. Five Lego employees spent 10 weeks building the XC90 as part of a partnership between the Swedish firm and the Legoland amusement park in California.

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YCC (2004)

Volvo presented the Your Concept Car (YCC) at the 2004 Geneva auto show.

It envisioned the design study as a car for women. It assembled a team of women engineers and designers to develop it and asked for a car that was easy to park, required little maintenance, offered smart storage solutions and boasted good visibility.

The YCC never reached production but some of its design elements influenced the C30.

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An entire generation of motorists learned to drive with a rear-engined car.

This type of car became immensely popular during the 1950s and the 1960s and companies from all over the automotive spectrum touted their merits in every market they sold cars in. Moving the engine to the back reduced the cost of a car and made its interior more spacious while keeping its overall dimensions in check, they argued.

However most car companies moved away from the rear-engined layout as quickly as they adopted it as tastes changed. Here we look back at the car that represent its glory days, and the reasons for its decline.

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Why?

Weight, cost and packaging constraints drove several car-makers towards the rear-engined layout after the second world war. In his book, Fiat engineer Dante Giacosa explained why the Italian firm adopted the configuration for the Fiat 600 and then the Fiat 500 (pictured).

“The decisive element deciding me in favour of the rear engine-transmission arrangement was cost. The front arrangement was attractive because of the technical advantages presented by front-wheel drive, and even more because of the space it would leave free for the coachwork, but it would have made an economy model of the size we aimed at much more expensive than the rear-engined arrangement.”

Though he speaks only on behalf of Fiat, his reasoning explains why most mainstream car-makers adopted a rear-engined layout. The configuration began rising in popularity well before the 600 made its debut in 1955, though, as we’ll see:

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Tatra V570 (1931)

The Czech firm Tatra started experimenting with rear-engined cars when it built a prototype named V570 in 1931. Its creators argued putting the engine in the back made the car quieter and more spacious because it didn’t need a transmission tunnel.

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Tatra V570 (1931)

The layout also let it design a more aerodynamic body by extending the back end. The V570 was never mass produced but it’s a fascinating part of history because many historians claim it directly influenced the Volkswagen Beetle.

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Tatra 77 (1934)

Tatra took the lessons it learned from the V570 project into a production car named 77. Launched in 1934, it was much larger than the prototype that helped shape it but the two cars shared several important attributes like a streamlined design and a rear-mounted engine.

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Tatra 77 (1934)

The unit in question was an air-cooled V8 rated at 60bhp. The later 77a received a bigger, 75bhp V8. The 77 can hardly be considered a mass-produced car; production ended in 1938 after Tatra made about 250 examples. It's significant because it laid the foundations Tatra built on until it stopped making passenger cars in 1999.

The 700 of 1996 was its last car, and was a large, aerodynamic four-door with a rear-mounted, air-cooled V8 – just like the 77.

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Volkswagen Beetle (1938)

Adolf Hitler asked engineer Ferdinand Porsche to develop an affordable, economical car capable of putting Germany on wheels, at a time when car ownership was much lower than in neighbouring France.

While Porsche started from scratch, he already had a very concise idea of the type of car he wanted to create. He had toyed with the idea of a so-called people’s car for years and many of his designs used a rear-mounted engine. The first pre-production Beetle prototypes were built in 1938, and around 630 were built before the start of the second world war, when production ceased in favour of military production, such as the German army’s Kübelwagen, based on the Beetle.

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Volkswagen Beetle (1938)

Production restarted after the war and sales grew slowly at first, but they sky-rocketed during the 1950s. The one million mark for the Beetle arrived in 1955; the two million mark came just two years later. The Beetle outgrew its status as a basic economy car and became an icon.

It was also a very successful export, especially to America (pictured) where there was a demand for small cars not initially sold by the large car firms in Detroit. The Beetle gave its underpinnings to a wide variety of Volkswagen models and inspired dozens of models made by rival brands. With over 21 million examples built during a 65-year long production run, the Beetle remains the most popular rear-engined car ever.

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Renault 4CV (1947)

Renault engineers secretly began working on the 4CV during German occupation in the second world war. Company founder Louis Renault allegedly didn’t know about the model; apparently he wasn’t informed because everyone knew he didn’t like the idea of a popular car for the mass market.

Some historians believe the 4CV’s creators chose a rear-engined layout after examining the Volkswagen Beetle but Renault claims it selected the configuration for cost and weight reasons.

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Renault 4CV (1947)

4CV production began in 1947 and the model quickly travelled around the globe. It was sold in the United States, manufactured under license in Japan by Hino, and even built from complete knock-down kits in Sydney, Australia.

Significantly, the 4CV gave its platform to the Alpine A106, the firm’s first car. Renault made over one million examples of the 4CV until 1961. Its replacement was the Renault 4, and it changed to a front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive in the name of practicality.

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Porsche 356 (1948)

The first Porsche 356 prototype made in 1948 used a mid-mounted engine. This configuration could have completely changed the course of Porsche’s history if it had stuck to it but the company chose to move the engine behind the rear axle on the production model for cost and packaging reasons.

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Porsche 356 (1948)

The 356 became the first in a long line of rear-engined Porsche models that continues with the 911 today. Porsche never forgot about its origins and it later released several mid-engined cars, including the 914 and the 718 Boxster.

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Fiat 600 (1955)

The 600 sparked Fiat’s long association with the rear-mounted engine. The company envisioned it as a model that would put Italy on wheels after the war. It had to be cheap to buy, cheap to operate and cheap to service. Fiat seriously considered front-wheel drive but, as engineer Dante Giacosa explained, ultimately chose to make it rear-wheel drive and rear-engined to keep costs low.

Early examples came with reversed doors and a water-cooled, 633cc four-cylinder engine. The engine’s displacement grew during the car’s long production run, and spawned several other versions during its long production run. It became the SEAT 800 in Spain, where it gained a second set of doors, but Fiat never offered it as a four-door.

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Fiat 600 (1955)

Neckar and Zastava made the car in Germany and in Yugoslavia, respectively. Factories in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile also built 600s with modifications made to suit local requirements.

And, in Italy, dozens of coachbuilders turned the 600 into coupes, convertibles, sports cars and even luxury cars. Italian production of the 600 ended in 1969 but it remained available in Yugoslavia until 1985.

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Fiat 600 Multipla (1956)

Fiat wasted no time in expanding the 600 line-up. It released the 600 Multipla, a precursor to the modern people-carrier, in early 1956. Engineers retained the rear-mounted engine but shifted the front seats to the space right over the front axle in order to carve out a roomier cabin without making the car significantly longer.

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Fiat 600 Multipla (1956)

Hailed as one of the first leisure-oriented cars, the 600 Multipla could seat six, sleep two or carry a generous amount of cargo.

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Renault Dauphine (1956)

The Renault 4CV was France’s best-selling car between 1949 and 1955. In an effort to keep the momentum going, the French firm created a larger and more comfortable car that could lure 4CV owners who were ready for an upgrade.

The Dauphine was born in 1956 and it led the sales charts between 1957 and 1961; Renault’s bet had paid off.  It looked considerably more modern than the 4CV but the two models shared a number of mechanical components, including their rear-mounted, water-cooled four-cylinder engine. Renault made several variants of the Dauphine.

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Renault Dauphine (1956)

The range included a more upmarket model named Ondine, high-performance Gordini- and 1093-badged models plus a convertible named Floride. It was also sold in America (pictured), where it sold well at first to households that wanted a smaller second car.

Alfa Romeo notably made the Dauphine for the Italian market; it was the firm’s only mass-produced rear-engined car. Dauphine production ended in 1967 in France and in 1970 in Argentina. Renault made over two million examples.

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Fiat 500 (1957)

Fiat’s 600 exceeded all expectations but it remained out of reach for many buyers who settled for a scooter or a moped. Decision-makers put Dante Giacosa in charge of creating a smaller, entry-level model capable of putting even the most modest households on wheels. The 500 made its debut in 1957.

Slow, noisy and pretty basic, the original 500 raised more than a few eyebrows when it went on sale. Many argued buyers were better off saving up for a 600. Demand picked up after Fiat added features and increased the 479cc, two-cylinder engine’s output to 15hp in late 1957. The 500 remained a strong seller until production ended in 1975, three years after its intended replacement, the 126, went on sale.

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Fiat 500 (1957)

Like the 600, the 500 spawned many variants inside and outside of Italy. Abarth and Giannini famously took it racing, Fiat launched a more spacious variant named Giardinetta (which was also sold as an Autobianchi) and even a beach-friendly model called Jolly.

Austrian company Steyr-Puch prepared the 500 for the Alps by fitting it with a more powerful flat-twin engine.

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NSU Prinz (1958)

In the 1950s, NSU was better versed in making scooters and mopeds than cars. It began planning its return to the automotive space when it grew tired of losing clients who were seeking to upgrade to a four-wheeler with a fixed roof.

The Prinz nearly arrived with three wheels, like the Messerschmitt KR 200, but it made its debut at the 1957 Frankfurt auto show with four wheels and a rear-mounted, two-cylinder engine.

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NSU Prinz (1958)

Production began the following year with a 20hp, 600cc air-cooled twin. The Prinz kept its rear-engined configuration as it received upgrades including a complete redesign in 1961 and several high-performance, Gordini-rivalling variants during the 1960s.

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Subaru 360 (1958)

An eccentric Japanese law convinced Subaru engineers to place the 360’s two-stroke, two-cylinder engine in the back. Early on, they knew the model needed to comply with the strict kei car regulations announced in 1949 to convince motorists to think small.

This meant it couldn’t stretch longer than 2997 mm (118 inches), wider than 1295 mm (51 inches) tall and taller than 1981 mm (78 inches). Placing the engine in the back cleared up enough space for four adults in the passenger compartment while staying under the size limits imposed by the Japanese government.

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Subaru 360 (1958)

The 360 remained in production until 1971. The entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin imported the car to the USA to establish Subaru America in 1968; driving this tiny car among the usually enormous cars on US roads must have been somewhat scary…

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BMW 700 (1959)

The Michelotti-designed 700 played a significant role in saving BMW from collapse. It took the company into a booming segment of the market it wasn’t previously present in.

BMW didn’t want to spend money on designing an engine from scratch so it modified the BMW R67 motorcycle’s air-cooled, flat-twin for car use.

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BMW 700 (1959)

The firm mounted the engine behind the passenger compartment to better compete against the most popular cars sold in Europe during the late 1950s.

Production lasted between 1959 and 1965, a point by which BMW had already started forging its image as a maker of sporty, prestigious cars.

Picture: BMW 700 Coupe

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Chevrolet Corvair (1959)

Chevrolet released the Corvair for the 1960 model year in a bid to compete directly against the Volkswagen Beetle. The Corvair used a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine but the similarities between it and its German rival largely ended there.

It wore a considerably more modern design, it was bigger and it offered buyers a flat-six engine that made 80 hp in its initial state of tune. Sporty variants – including a turbocharged, 180 hp model – joined the line-up in the early 1960s.

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Chevrolet Corvair (1959)

Chevrolet’s answer to European economy cars could have spawned an entire segment but its handling drew the damning criticism of safety advocate Ralph Nader. His book Unsafe at Any Speed cemented the model’s reputation as dangerous. Chevrolet corrected most of the Corvair’s handling faults with a thorough update in 1965 but the damage was already done – though the model did go onto sell around 1.835 million examples.

The firm didn’t dare release another rear-engined car after Corvair production ended in 1969.

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ZAZ Zaporozhets (1960)

The USSR-built ZAZ-965 launched the long-running Zaporozhets series in 1960. It looked like a Soviet interpretation of the Fiat 600 and the resemblance wasn’t a pure coincidence. The Russian government instructed ZAZ engineers to closely examine the then-new Fiat before starting the design process.

The 965 wasn’t a carbon copy of the 600, however. It featured a torsion bar suspension system inspired by the one fitted to the Volkswagen Beetle and it came with an air-cooled V4 engine.

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ZAZ Zaporozhets (1960)

The 965 was replaced by the 966 (pictured) – which openly drew inspiration from the NSU Prinz – in 1966 but it remained available until 1969. The 966 morphed into the 968 in 1971 and remained available in various forms until 1994, always with a rear-mounted, air-cooled V4 engine.

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Simca 1000 (1961)

Simca tried every nearly mechanical configuration available. It experimented with rear-engined, rear-wheel drive models when it released the 1000 in 1961. The four-door was designed with input from Fiat – which owned part of Simca – and it anticipated a rising demand for a bigger, more powerful car than the 600 powered by a 1000cc engine.

The team in charge of the 1000 set out to develop a humble family car priced within most people’s reach; they unintentionally created one of the most popular (and successful) race cars of all time.

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Simca 1000 (1961)

The Rallye-badged variants of the Simca 1000 won competitions all over Europe and they remain popular as historic racers today. Abarth also tuned the model shortly after its introduction and Simca turned its entry-level family car into a pair of low-slung coupes called 1000 Coupe (pictured) and 1200S, respectively.

Simca released the 1100 in 1967 with a transversally-mounted four-cylinder engine that spun the front wheels. It was sold alongside the 1000 until troubled Simca ended production of both models in 1978.

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Alpine A110 (1962)

The A106, Alpine’s first model, was rear-engined because it shared many mechanical components with the Renault 4CV. The company stuck to this configuration when it designed the A108 and it found no reason to move the engine when it began working on the A110.

Compact, light and reasonably powerful, the A110 became one of the most successful rear-engined race cars ever to line up on a starting grid. The A110 used Renault-sourced engines throughout its entire career.

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Alpine A110 (1962)

Early models came with 55hp, 956cc four-cylinder borrowed from the then-new 8 while later examples received a fuel-injected, 1605cc four-cylinder borrowed from the 17 TS and tuned to deliver 140bhp.

Alpine, like Porsche, kept the rear-mounted engine for as long as possible. The A310 and the A610 were both rear-engined. The born-again A110 released in 2017 switched to a mid-engined layout, however.

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Renault 8 (1962)

Many understandably assumed Renault would stop making rear-engined cars when it released the front-wheel drive 4 in 1961. The company wasn’t quite done, however. The Dauphine was beginning to show its age and Renault sought to replace it with a new model named Renault 8.

Its boxy design broke away from the Dauphine’s soft, rounded lines but the two cars were similar under the sheet metal.

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Renault 8 (1962)

Renault kept the water-cooled, rear-mounted engine instead of making the 8 front-engined and front-wheel drive like the Renault 4. It probably worried about alienating a customer base who had driven rear-engined cars since the 1940s.

Renault filled the gap between the Renault 8 and the Renault 16 by releasing another rear-engined model named Renault 10. It was an evolution of the 8 with a longer front end that wore a model-specific design and a nicer interior.

The best-remembered variant of the 8 is the Gordini (pictured), which arrived in 1964 with a 90hp, 1108cc engine. It gained a 100hp, 1255cc four-cylinder (and two additional lights up front) in 1967. French production of the 8 stopped in 1973, six years after Renault made the last Dauphine, but the model survived until 1976 in Spain.

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Hillman Imp (1963)

Hillman released the rear-engined Imp in 1963. Designed to tackle the Mini head-on, the Imp had a clever feature none of its competitors could boast about.

Its rear window opened upwards to let motorists place luggage on the back seat. Those who needed more space could fold the rear seatback flat, another unusual feature in the 1960s.

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Hillman Imp (1963)

Hillman went to great lengths to make the Imp easier to live with on a daily basis than the Mini but reliability problems - notably with the cooling system - gave it a bad reputation it couldn’t recover from.

Strikes at the Linwood factory in Scotland that built it compounded its problems. The Imp’s less-than-illustrious career contributed greatly to the financial problems of Hillman parent company Rootes, leading Rootes into the arms of Chrysler in 1967.

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Porsche 911 (1963)

Porsche replaced the 356 with the 901 in 1963. It was a brand-new model from the ground up; it wore a sleeker design and it received a flat-six engine. Peugeot swiftly reminded Porsche that it owned every three-digit nameplate with a zero in the middle so the 901 became the 911 shortly after its introduction.

The rest, as they say, is history. The 911 is one of the most famous rear-engined cars ever made.

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Porsche 911 (1963)

The 911 has gone through many, many evolutions in its long history. It has got bigger, heavier, more advanced and much more powerful. It shifted from air-cooling to water-cooling and even launched a hybrid version in 2024 (pictured). It has always remained rear-engined and this configuration continues to shape its emblematic design.

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Fiat 850 (1964)

Developed to take the torch from the 600, the Fiat 850 was a new design built around the same rear-engined layout as its predecessor. Released in 1964, the 850 should have arrived with a sloping silhouette like the 600’s but internal testing revealed prototypes weren’t aerodynamically efficient.

They had nearly the same 68mph top speed as the 600 even though horsepower output had jumped from 29 to 40. Fiat rushed a three-box design to production to avoid delaying the car, according to Dante Giacosa, and the 850 went on sale right on schedule with a 75mph top speed.

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Fiat 850 (1964)

SEAT again built the 850 under license and it again released a variant with an extra set of doors. Back in Turin, Fiat had watched coachbuilders steal the spotlight with sporty variants of the 600 and it was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

It released coupe and convertible (pictured) variants of the model in 1965 and fitted both with a more powerful version of the 843cc engine. Coupe and Spider models received a 903cc four-cylinder engine in 1968. In the United States, Fiat moved in the opposite direction.

For years, it sold the 850 with an 817cc four to skirt emissions regulations. Production ended in 1973 and Fiat replaced the 850 with the front-engined, front-wheel drive 127.

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Škoda 1000 MB (1964)

Škoda didn’t ask its research and development department to make the 1000 MB rear-engined. The car simply had to be lighter, more efficient and more compact than the firm’s other models. In the late 1950s, that meant ditching body-on-frame construction.

With that matter settled, engineers considered three options: front-engined and front-wheel drive, front-engined and rear-wheel drive as well as rear-engined and rear-wheel drive. They chose the latter because it made the car simpler to build – and consequently cheaper to sell.

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Škoda 1000 MB (1964)

The 1000 MB was the first in a decades-long series of rear-engined Škoda models that ended when the last 120 rolled off the assembly line in 1990. The model family included four-door passenger cars, two-door coupes with a fastback-like roof line and a rally-winning, hot-rodded model named 130 RS.

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Fiat 126 (1972)

The popularity of rear-engined cars had already started to decline when Fiat released the 126 in 1972. Developed to finally replace the 500, it stood out with a boxier design that brought it in line with the prevalent styling trends of the 1970s.

The sheet metal hid a packaging solution largely borrowed from the 500, however. Power came from an air-cooled, two-cylinder engine mounted behind the passenger compartment.

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Fiat 126 (1972)

In early cars, the 594cc twin sent 23hp to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual transmission. The 126 survived for even longer than the 500. In 1987, its 15th year on the market, it received a water-cooled, 704cc two-cylinder and a rear hatch for added practicality.

Fiat stopped selling the 126 in many western European countries in 1993 but the model remained hugely popular in Poland. Polish production began in 1973 and didn’t stop until 2000. All told, 4.6 million examples of the 126 were manufactured, against 3.8 million 500s.

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The end

The original Mini (pictured) of 1959 defiantly proved it was possible to combine front-wheel drive and front-engine in a small, economy-oriented car which still was reasonably spacious given its size. It led many car-makers to seriously search for alternatives to the rear-mounted engine during the 1960s.

Those companies which had never released a rear-engined model, like Citroën, Ford and Saab, sat back and watched. Renault cut its teeth with the 1959 Estafette and truly started its shift when it released the Renault 3 and the Renault 4 in 1961.

Fiat started  looking into front-wheel drive in 1947 and finally brought the layout to production in the 1964 Autobianchi Primula. Simca introduced the 1100 in 1967, and Fiat unveiled the 128 two years later. 1969 is also when Chevrolet stopped building the Corvair, and never made another rear-engined car.

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The end

Even Volkswagen, a company many believed would never change, warmed up to the idea of making front-engined cars. Its first was the K70, which unexpectedly joined the Volkswagen line-up from NSU in 1970.

The Passat introduced in 1973 and the Golf (pictured) launched in 1974 both used a similar layout. The glory days of the rear-engined car were firmly at an end.

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We have had small electric hot hatchbacks such as the Alpine A290 and large ones like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N but, as yet, not a lot in the real heartland of Volkswagen Golf GTI-sized machinery. 

To be fair, the lack of traditional family-sized electric hot hatches has been due to a near total absence of donor cars. Almost all five-door, five-seat, circa 4.3m-long EVs have been homogenised crossovers, in part because of the need to accommodate the depth of a battery pack. A few years down the line, it's an excuse that is starting to wear a bit thin.

But then the Kia EV4 arrived, as arguably the first electric family hatch in the traditional mould. And now Kia has decided to turn it into the first Golf GTI-sized electric hot hatch as well. The Cupra Born, Volkswagen ID 3 and MG 4 are the closest conceptual rivals, but none dip under the 1500mm mark in terms of height (not even the 'little' Alpine), as the EV4 GT does. It feels like a bit of a watershed moment for the performance EV.

So what exactly is an EV4 GT? Mechanically it is near-identical to the new EV3 GT crossover, and is one third of a GT-badged offensive that Kia is launching in 2026 (the third car being the larger EV5 GT).

Why so many new GT models all of a sudden? Kia R&D chief Manfred Harrer some time ago accepted the notion that the dynamic enjoyment of the company's car handn’t kept pace with the recent improvements in design and desirability. He told us the GT models would be his starting point in trying to address that, and that is now happening, with the EV4 GT being perhaps the most convincing of the gaggle.

Its dynamic make-up is more Golf R than Golf GTI, not just owing to the technical fact that it has four-wheel drive (thanks to an additional 94bhp motor for the rear axle) rather than front-wheel drive (the 194bhp motor from the standard EV4 remains at the front) but also in how it goes down the road.

The suspension makeover, comprising new springs and new valving for the three-mode dampers, versus the standard EV4 feels particularly significant: the 288bhp EV4 GT does a Golf R impression in offering commendable comfort and compliance alongside plenty of grip and stability when being pushed, although its limits reserves of body control, outright grip and general poise are ultimately lower than the famous German car's.

As with the EV3 GT, because of the arrangement of the motors, the balance gives more of a front-drive hot hatch feel than Kia’s hitherto rear-biased more senior GT creations, so the EV4 GT can’t be steered gently on the accelerator in the way that, say, a Cupra Born VZ can. The less powerful rear motor exists mainly to neutralise the cornering balance, not fundamentally alter it for tail-happy antics. Equally, the EV4 GT is perhaps a touch more willing to tighten its line with a gentle mid-corner lift that its crossover sibling.

There’s no form of diff lock at the front, either, only a torque-vectoring programme that uses both physical and regenerative braking to help the car pivot. Traction is not generally a problem, and in Korea there was no sign of axle-tramp or torque-steer, but trail the EV4 GT into a tight bend and the attempt at a swift exit can scruffily expose the limitations of the torque-vectoring system.

That all being said, the EV4 GT’s lower centre of gravity really tells in the way it gets that Tron-like snout into corners. It doesn’t steer with genuine alacrity, but it is appreciably crisper than the EV3 GT. The steering is also more resolute in its self-centring and has a gratifying elasticity to the pick-up and motion as you load it up into a bend. With the EV4 GT there simply seems to be more meat on the bone for people who love driving, rather than simply going fast with plenty of security underwheel.

And it is quick enough, with a 5.6sec 0-62mph time, although according to the performance data-logger you can view on the central touchscreen, in reality it can manage closer to five seconds dead. The virtual gearshift function made famous by the Ioniq 5 N also features, and among the driving modes is one labelled GT (enabled by a button on the steering wheel) that makes everything as fast or as stiff as it goes.

Pirelli P Zero 4S tyres (245/45 front and rear) are wrapped around 20in alloys and behind them are some beefed-up brakes with, on this liveried prototype at least, some fetching neon-coloured calipers. In truth, brake pedal-feel is the weakest point of the package, and highlights the fact that Kia's GT wares are less committed than those of sister-brand Hyundai's N models. 

Inside, the EV4 GT receives some meaningful upgrades over the donor car in a cabin that feels classy with some sporty touches. Best among them are new sports seats that make it seem like you're sitting lower than in the standard EV4, and they feel great too, with an Alcantara-like wrapping and leather trim.

Piece it all together and you get a car that, on the basis of this early drive in Korea, shows lots of promise and in several different ways. There is headroom here and space for an even more engaging car, but the EV4 GT shows that more humble Kia hatches can be as good to drive as they look.

Tech Spec: Kia EV4 GT

Feature	Specification
Price	£49,500 (est)
Engine	Two permanent magnet synchronous motors
Power	194bhp (front), 94bhp (rear)
Torque	345lb ft
Gearbox	1-spd reduction gear, 4WD
Kerb weight	2220kg (est)
0-62mph	5.6sec
Top speed	105mph
Battery	81.4/78.0kWh (total/est usable)
Range, economy	333 miles, 4.3mpkWh (est)
CO2, tax band	0g/km, 4%
Rivals	Abarth 600e, Cupra Born VZ

The EV3 is where it starts to get serious for Kia’s performance GT subbrand.

So far we have had the super-saloonish EV6 GT and the hulking EV9 GT, but these are the big-money flagships and seldom seen. GT-ifying the smaller EV3 takes Kia’s performance sub-brand into sub-£50k territory, and as the most accessible model in the snowballing GT range, this is the one that matters.

So what constitutes an EV3 GT, beyond the acid-green accents, neatly repro led bumpers and skirts and a set of Pirelli P Zero tyres? Under the skin, the 81.4kWh battery is borrowed from the mainline EV3 Long Range, for 311 miles of claimed range with a modest maximum charging speed of 128kW. It supplies a front motor that with 194bhp is exactly 100bhp more powerful than its rear counterpart.

All said this powertrain makes 288bhp – enough to send the EV3 GT to 62mph from rest in only 5.7sec, despite a kerb weight of more than two tonnes.

In terms of the dynamic DNA, while there has been plenty of R&D crossover, there is deliberately less ambition with Kia’s GT cars than we’re used to seeing with the N models of sister-brand Hyundai. Kia wants these models to be undemanding performance EVs that offer a bit more bite than the regular cars, but not so much that it risks wearing thin in daily use.

As much was apparent during a brief drive on a corner-starved route around the company’s Namyang development facility. With a comparatively relaxed spread of rates for its three-mode dampers and a heavyset demeanour, this car is GT by nature as well as name. Those looking for an electric replacement for their Toyota GR Yaris should therefore steer clear, but that isn’t to say the GT is only for those who like the idea of owning a hot hatch more than the reality.

It steers accurately and controls its mass well, and the ergonomics are genuinely superb. Of course, given the arrangement of the motors, the balance gives more of a front-drive hot hatch feel than Kia’s hitherto rear-biased more senior GT creations, so the EV3 GT can’t be steered gently on the accelerator in the way a Cupra Born can. The less powerful rear motor exists mainly to neutralise the cornering balance, not fundamentally alter it for tailhappy antics.

There’s no form of diff lock at the front, either, only a torque-vectoring programme that uses both physical and regenerative braking to help the car pivot. Traction is not generally a problem, and in Korea there was no sign of axle-tramp or torque-steer, but trail the EV3 GT into a tight bend and the attempt at a swift exit can scruffily expose the limitations of the torquevectoring system.

The EV3 GT prefers to sit back and carry momentum through more sweeping bends. It does this well. Mind you, the car seen here isn’t quite the finished article. European specification GTs will have revisions to make them feel a touch more alive and responsive. Chiefly, there will be a more pronounced ramping up of weight in the action of the steering as it loads up, and the dampers will be recalibrated for closer body control.

Without these improvements the EV3 GT is still quietly enjoyable, quick transport, although it does ultimately feel a bit one-dimensional.

The car does have one trick up its sleeve, though: the Virtual Gear Shift (VGS). It mimics a six-speed DCT and can be toggled on and off via the touchscreen (slick graphics, but with a little bit of latency in our test car). Hit the unmissable green button for GT mode and VGS is triggered automatically, ready for you to rip a synthesised fourcylinder turbo engine to the rev-range.

This is decent fun for a short while, but the real strength of the system is the way it works when you set the system to ‘automatic’ mode and you’re simply mooching about in less frenetic driving modes. The gentle build-up and ebb of revs at well-calibrated shift-points is of course made up, but it suits the EV3 GT’s laid-back persona and really does add some charm.

So what will the EV3 GT be measured against? A surprising number of rivals includes the Mini Countryman JCW Electric, Skoda Elroq vRS, Volkswagen ID3 GTX, the tightly wound Abarth 600e, Cupra Born VZ and, at a push, Alpine’s smaller, pointier A290. In this company the Kia is not notably powerful, entertaining, visually striking or cheap, and neither is 4WD any kind of USP. But the VGS is strangely compelling in daily driving, and if the aim was a more broad-batted, keyed-in take on the already excellent EV3, it’s job done.

Kia EV3 GT 

Verdict: Ought to be a capable and balanced, if slightly unexciting, addition to the EV hot-hatch ranks.