The Iso Rivolta IR 300 of the 1960s was powered by a Chevrolet V8 engine mounted so far back in the chassis that the driver sat ahead of the front wheels, creating such extreme front-weight bias that the car required massive power steering assistance just to turn at parking-lot speeds, yet this bizarre packaging was deliberate—Iso’s engineers calculated that extreme front weight would counteract the V8’s rear-weight tendency during cornering, essentially using poor weight distribution to cancel out poor weight distribution and accidentally creating balanced handling through a double negative.
Car Fact #86 — September 10, 2026
