The first front wheel drive car, the 1905 Christie 4 cylinder Vanderbilt cup racecar

Above photo from http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/

the cylinders were leaned back to take some weight off the front and transfer the weight to the rear a little bit

Walter Christie was involved in the engineering of many other vehicles, steamships, submarines, aircraft and fire engines coincidentally, and this past weekend I and Justacargal were examining the one at the Nethercutt museum just North of Los Angeles in the San Fernando valley: http://justacargal-s.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-fire-engine.html

the 3 some of race cars at the 1908 Minnesota state fair is from http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/

The machine is known as the “Freak Automobile,” because all its mechanism is built over the two front wheels, where the driving power is also applied. Each of the five cylinders, two of which are to be seen conspicuously over the front right wheel, is capable of developing 60 hp. The front right wheel is double tired and strengthened to withstand the enormous strain when traveling around a curve at a high rate of speed.

The power of the gas engine is so great that it is impossible to run the machine on a city street, and when the mechanism starts working the machine fairly jumps through the air. The inventor is wealthy and follows the sport purely for the joy of rushing along at a speed faster than the flight of a homing pigeon. http://thiscircularparade.com/2012/02/04/speed-demon-roadster-runs-a-mile-in-57-seconds/