Greg: This picture reminds me of the 124 Spider I owned in 1969 and enjoyed hauling my kids in the jump seats behind the two front seats. Question: What happened to that space in the current 124s? Was the wheel base of the earlier 124 longer than the current model? Those jump seats were not large at all, but the kids could easily fit in them. Often wondered what happened to that former space. Any ideas?
Yes, I know exactly what happened. I am working on a 124 video that will explain it, but here is a brief summary.
In the 60's the British sports cars all had decent but not great suspensions. I am talking about the sports cars that competed with the original 124 Spider, like the MGB, Sprite, Triumph Spitfire and some others. However, they handled pretty well largely due to superior weight distribution compared to other cars of the day. The achieved this decent weight distribution by moving the engine back, way back, which then shoved everything else back including the driver. This didn't leave much if any room for a back seat.
Meanwhile, the Italians took a totally different approach. The primary Italian Sports cars, Fiat 124, Alfa Spider, Lancia Fulvia, all had their engines pretty far forward since all were based on sedan designs that prioritized space in the cabin. That basic design principle carried forward when they built sports car versions of these sedans like the 124 Spider. Thus they could move driver farther forward as compared with the British cars which left room for a little backseat and a decent trunk.
The Italian cars then made up for this tendency to be nose heavy by using better and more advanced suspensions. This worked really well, and generally speaking, an old time Fiat 124 will handle every bit as well if not better than it's British counterparts.
With these factors in mind, take a look at pictures of sports cars from the era. You will see that the driver of a 124 or Alfa Spider has his butt at or near the dead center of the wheelbase. Then look at a British car, the driver is seated well aft of that center.
Fast forward to the original Miata. They didn't base it on a sedan, and they based the body on a British car, so the general layout puts the engine and driver pretty far back, thus no back seat space. That design carried forward until the current generation. As the 124 shares a chassis with the Miata, and because there is no 124 sedan anymore, the new 124's engine is really far back, and so is the driver and so on.
In short, the original 124 had it's engine more or less centered over the front axle because it was really a sedan/wagon design with a Spider variant. The current 124 has nearly its entire engine aft of the front axle because it's chassis is designed specifically as a sports car.
Greg
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