The RMR layout is commonly found only in sports cars — the motor is centre-mounted in the chassis closer to and behind the driver, and powers only the rear wheels. High-performance sports car manufacturers, such as Ferrari and Lamborghini prefer this layout. Many modern cars, especially grand tourers, also use a FMR layout, with the motor sitting between the front axle and the firewall.

Porsche is one of the few, remaining manufacturers using the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. The motor's distributed weight across the wheels, in a Porsche 911, provides excellent traction, but is not ideal, as the engine's weight is not between the two axles; the vehicle is poorly balanced, thus, many early Porsches handled twitchily. Yet Porsche has continuously refined the design and in recent years combined engineering modifications and electronic driving aids  to counteract inherent design shortcomings.