[DeTomaso] Under car water pipes

[dickruzzindesign]

Bill,
You will get a lot of answers to this one, never feel dumb because you are ignorant. That's the first rule in learning how things work.

There are a lot of different opinions on the forum in the form of information based on individual experiences.  I am sure that many people will not agree with mine.  You will have to sort out what you get.

Radiators want to be in the front of cars because when moving forward that is where the most airflow is at the highest positive pressure. This makes the car much easier to cool with a smaller lighter radiator unit.  Panteras also do not want radiators in the rear because they are already heavier there because the engine is in the rear.  The weight bias is already in the rear of a Pantera.  A  50% front, / 50% rear
weight is considered a more weight neutral platform which results in the least specific dynamic solutions for ride and handling.  The Pantera being mid-engine and slightly heavier in the rear was done that way to relate to competition cars, especially Grand Prix racing cars. The heavier rear weight allows a specific driving style that takes advantage of the rear weight bias in the form of traction.  

Cooling a car is easy, all you need is a large enough very efficient radiator and coolant supply coupled with enough air and the appropriate forceful fans. It is all hard to fit into the front of a small low car.  Recent advancements in radiator (cooling), materials and the need for high engine temperatures for lower emissions have resulted in very high running temperatures in modern cars. But the engines have new materials that allow that to happen over a long period of time.  These new technologies can be taken advantage of in older cars.

You are right, you can combine a radiator with an oil cooler.  For many years most cars with automatic transmissions have had a radiator 
combined with a transmission fluid cooler.  However, these units have two separate compartments for the two different kinds of fluid.

Don't ask me about electricity.
--
All the best, Dick Ruzzin.
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