Forty-two years ago, the automotive world was in the grip of an utterly insane obsession. Within a space of 18 months, America’s “Big Three” introduced more than a dozen new models ranging from the dirt-cheap Ford Escort and the Plymouth Reliant K to the upscale Cadillac Cimarron, with family-sized cars from Buick, Mercury, Oldsmobile, and others in-between. They had just one thing in common, and it was an important thing: the combination of a transverse (sideways) mounted engine and front-wheel drive introduced by the British Motor Corporation Mini in 1959 and popularized by the Honda C...