Interestingly, the power take of of the straight-8 was in the middle, between the #4 and 5 cylinders. Its inventor, Donald Carriere, patented this "T-Drive" idea for Ford.
"The T-Drive system proposed in Contour envisions a transversely-mounted straight eight engine with the transmission joining the center of the engine's crankcase and driven from a gear in the center of the crankshaft (Vittorio Jano, who put the camshaft, supercharger and accessory drives of the straight eight Alfa Romeo 8C in the center of his engine, would be pleased with the concept and delighted at the highly integrated structure proposed by Carriere's T-Drive package.) A single large crankshaft-driven alternator resolves accessory drives: everything in the T-Drive concept, even the water pump, is electrically driven. T-Drive also contemplates fulltime all wheel drive with a low-mounted driveshaft passing through a tiny tunnel to the rear differential."
