Technical Vintage transaxle?

Some Buckminster Fuller?

 

What about the Pantera? HRP

 

Just find a scrap Tucker. Now that would be vintage. Good luck.

 

Looks a bit clunky to me. The Schlorwagen, Arrowhead Water teardrop, Tatras, Phantom Corsair, etc.

 

A lot of kit car builders are using the Renault UN1 gearboxes. They are cheap and there's lots of parts available for them.

 

Pictures of the driveline shouldn't be off-topic.

 

I'm pretty sure the Fiero has the standard Chevy bellhousing pattern, didn't one of the car mags back in the '80s put a 400 small block in one?

 

i think with the late corvair setup, you can run mid-engine by flipping the transaxle around and flipping the ring gear. not sure, but i think the mid-engine kit is still available.

 

Most front wheel drive cars***set ups,can be used as rear/mid engine*** by locking up steering. As a complete unit. There designs are with engine in front of transaxle,so moving all of it to rear of a car=mid engine !!!< plus most are IFS.
Older set up ,but swing axle;,is look at VW racing class called " SCCA FV" it's use of stock VW transaxle flipped over / turned backward from stock an motor can with a VW bolt on transaxle right side up/but is now lower* good for racing CG,to make rear mid engine race car.

 

Old pic of my dad fitting a Olds Toronado in the back of a car


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Have no idea what transaxle was involved but I like it.

 

The Alfa even comes with a Watts link but you'd have to check the track to see if it would work in your car. Anything over 250hp might give it fits, too.

 

Built by Indy car mechanic Chauvin Emmons with a 427. Probably uses an early Hewland transaxle. Serious money...
But it is a real hot rod, 183 @ Bonneville:

 

It didn't have a trans axle, it was direct drive and had a quick change and Chauvin drove it on the streets.

 

I am in the process of building a mid-engine Model A, with a blown Chrysler Hemi.

I am using a TH425 (Cadillac Eddorado/Oldsmobile Toronado) FWD transaxle, turned around backwards, running a reverse-rotation Winters Quickchange.

This transmission was designed in parallel with the TH400, and is 98% identical, save for the chain drive.

Since the main body of the transmission sits next to the engine, and not behind it, it makes for a compact package.

I have produced a custom tail housing that uses TH400 parts, and puts a driveshaft yoke where the pumpkin was.

 

Doing that.

Bone stock, they can reliably support 500hp, and 400lb.ft..

With aftermarket TH400 internals, and 2-chains, they can handle 1000+.

 

Need an adapter to go to small block


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it's the small 4 cyl/60 degree V6 bellhousing, probably a normal TH125 transaxle

 

nice work gimpy !
gonna have a build thread ?

BTW, IIRC & FWIW, Pontiac had a rear transaxle in the 1961-1963 Tempest; the idea being a better front-to-rear weight distribution. Powered by an anemic 4-cyl.

Something a bit puzzling about the drive shaft that connected the engine to the transaxle.... Wikipedia's article says that it had a 3" downward bow; and was known as a "rope drive". Can anyone shed some light on just how that was done?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Tempest

 

I think that's what @squirrel is doing? He mentioned using a Tempest transaxle.

 

The one I'm working on didn't have a driveshaft in it...the guy who built the car 40+ years ago, did away with it. But the way it worked, was there was a torque tube, and the shaft inside was pretty small diameter solid high strength steel, supported by several ball bearings, in a curved shape. On mine, the engine bellhousing is bolted directly to the transaxle housing, and a coupler is between the cut off ends of the driveshaft

 

There must be a hundred front wheel drive, 4 cylinder cars with suitable transaxles if you don't mind a transverse engine. If you want a longitudinal engine that leaves you with Audi, VW Fox, some Renaults, Porsche 924 the Renault derived AMC Eagle from the early 90s, Subaru and a few others.
Or, you could use a conventional front engine/rear drive engine and transmission coupled to an IRS rear end. Lots of them to be found in a variety of sizes in rear drive and 4 wheel drive vehicles.
Since you want to use a Ford engine an Escort drive train would probably be the easiest.

 

A buddy made a couple of mid engine cars by using the front sub frame, engine and suspension of a front wheel drive car. One was a 51 Riley and he used a 90's Cadillac front sub frame and all the running gear. He made a deal to lock the steering gear straight ahead. The other was a dune buggy with an 80's turbo Chrysler front drive sub frame.

 

The Tuckers actually used a recycled Cord transaxle on all the production cars.

 

Those are "Eye candy" - also great engineering.

 

The Tempest used a thin, solid steel shaft. To stop it whipping at speed they put a ball bearing in the middle and bent it down slightly at the bearing. This led some humorous engineers to liken it to a skipping rope and call it a "rope" driveshaft more or less as a joke. If I recall correctly the shaft was only 3/4" in diameter.

 

Thanks!

I get a lot of practice on this sort of thing at the day job.

 

from the shop manual. A couple ball bearings in the middle, they're supported on rubber mounts. 3/4" dia sounds right.

 

The only literally Vintage transaxles I can think of are the aforementioned Stutz, Bugatti Types 41 and 46, and the mid-engined Rumpler Tropfenwagen – none of which are plentiful and cheap.

I have also thought of using a 4x4 setup back-to-front, like @Zuffen mentions. There are a number of advantages: flexibility as regards your choice of gearbox, weight distribution, simple shift linkage, compact packaging. You'll only need the most basic of transfer cases, locked in its high range, so early types can be used, even pre-WWII. The same applies to the final-drive unit: perhaps an early Ford axle with an IRS adaptor bell on one side and a very short axle tube on the other?