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 Zeppelins had 12-cylinder engines from German manufacturers Maybach and Daimler. Austro Daimler of the Austro-Hungarian empire, produced also V12, designed by Ferdinand Porsche, with first 300 and later 345 hp, used with the big flying boats of the A-H Naval Air force. Various U.S. companies produced the Liberty L-12. Soon after the end of World War I V12 engines powered the first trans-atlantic crossings by the Curtiss NC Flying boats (4 x Liberty L-12), the first non-stop crossing by Alcock and Brown in a Vickers Vimy (2× Rolls-Royce Eagles and the first airship crossing by HM airship R-34 (5× Sunbeam