Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout followed by the first De Tomaso, the Vallelunga, which mated a tuned Ford Cortina 1500 Kent engine to a VW transaxle with Hewland gearsets. Introduced at Turin in 1963, 58 were built 1964-68. Finally, in 1966, the Lamborghini Miura was the first high performance mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive roadcar. The concept behind the Miura was that of putting on the road a grand tourer featuring state-of-the-art racing-car technology of the time; hence the Miura was powered by a V12 transversely mounted between the rear wheels, solidal to the gearbox and differential. This represented an extremely innovative sportscar at a time when all
V12 engine where any adjustment method that could go wrong in flight was to be avoided. As initially built, the V12 was rated at at 2,400 rpm, weighing about . The engine powered the car (named ‘Toodles V' for Coatalen's wife Olive's pet name) to several records in 1913 and 1914. In 1909 Renault pioneered aero V12s with a 60 degree air-cooled engine with individual finned cylinders and F-head valve arrangement, driven by single camshaft in the crankcase. This was developed to a unit (96 x 140 mm) which weighed and produced at 1,800 rpm. The propeller was driven from the nose