In sports-car applications, the very low center of gravity of a flat engine improves cornering grip by helping reduce weight transfer in corners. Porsche's racing success with air-cooled engines in the 1950s showed Hans Mezger, the engineer who would lead 911 development for decades, that air cooling could handle high power output.įlat, or opposed, engines are self-balancing because their right-left pairs of pistons move in what the Germans call "Boxer Fashion"-in opposite directions. His support for air-cooled radial engines was pivotal in the development of air transport. Admiral William Moffett saw that half of the in-flight failures of naval aircraft originated in their engines' liquid cooling. Air-cooling systems can neither freeze in winter nor boil in summer, and can reduce parts counts. When Porsche designed the Beetle-derived Porsche 356, the first car to bear his name, those virtues remained attractive. Ferdinand Porsche's original design for the VW Beetle's flat-four engine centered on simplicity, durability, and low cost.
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