Electric fan
A few basics (IMHO):
Mechanical clutch-fans work better and continued for a long time in longitudinal engines. The best electric fan is the Taurus 2-spd which hot rodders like. You can buy integrated fan controllers w/ relay and temp sensor fairly cheap, which beats "roll your own" design.
Better? I don't think you can go that far anymore. None of the clutch fans will work as accurately as an electric fan with a programmable controller, which means with an electric you're losing less horsepower because you're not spinning a fan when you don't need one. And of course with a mechanical as soon as you shut the engine down you lose your fan, which doesn't have to be the case with an electric. You won't beat the efficiency of an electric fan with a good programmable controller with a mechanical clutch fan. Any losses you get from using electricity to drive the fan can be more than made up for by using a good controller.
As far as long term reliability, electric fans are much improved today. And mechanical fans fail too, the aren't indestructible. The clutches go bad, the water pump shaft/bearings go bad, fan belts can break or get thrown, heck depending on the fan the fan blades themselves can come off. They're not entirely problem free, although most of those problems should be fairly rare or preventable with proper maintenance. With the electrics there's just stuff that quits, so an inspection won't tell you something is about to go usually.
Pretty much all new vehicles, including those with longitudinal engines, come with electric fans now. And 100k mile warranties, so using an OE designed fan like the Taurus or Contour fans should give you pretty darn good reliability. So, "better" isn't a slam dunk for mechanical vs electric fans anymore. The mechanical fan with a clutch is still the most simple way to go though, because setting the electric fan up right means a good controller, relays, an alternator that can meet the new electrical demand, and some wiring upgrades to handle the extra current. Granted, most of these cars could use a good portion of those upgrades anyway, so, it's not like you can avoid all of those upgrades just by keeping a mechanical fan either.
Also the Chevy HHR fan works well.
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I have seen those used, seems like they're getting more use lately. The Taurus fans were the standby for a long time, and they work well for a 22" radiator. Looks like the HHR fans would be for a 22" core as well. I haven't seen CFM ratings for those, I know the Taurus fans are capable of over 3000 cfm and I believe that's on the lower speed of two.
For the 26" radiators, the Ford Contour dual speed, dual fan set ups are hard to beat. I love the one on my Duster, it works great. 3,000 cfm on the low speed, close to 5,000 cfm on the high speed. On my car the high speed rarely ever even kicks in, only on the 100+ degree days if I'm in town or in traffic. With the Dakota digital controller I can set the fan on/off temps by a degree at a time, same for the high speed, and even program a shut down timer to keep the fans spinning even after I shut down the car so it has better overheat protection and that will shut itself down for low voltage too so it won't kill the battery. It was a little bit of effort getting everything set up, but IMHO it was worth it compared to the simplicity of a mechanical fan.
