MV Agusta had a shaft drive four with parallelogram rear suspension in 1950, so the concept is a good 70 years old. Arturo Magni continued to offer that kind of rear end for Guzzis 20+ years ago,
and then there's the BMWs with floating gear case.
Hossack and Saxon (Nigel Hill?) both saw their FFEs used by BMW. At least Norman got a trip to Germany to see the Six debuted, but that was it. I don't know that Saxon got any recognition. Being a giant corporation must be very liberating, you have such freedom to do whatever you want to do.
Bookmarks