Technical Transmissions on their Sides

I seem to recall reading about four-speeds turned on their sides. I can't remember the context but it sort of feels like something which might happen in supermodifieds or Indy roadsters. Has anyone got any pics of anything like this, gearboxes on their sides, upside-down, divorced, chain-driven, reversed in any historical context, motorsport or street?

Apart from modifications to fill plugs, drain plugs, breathers, etc., what would the challenges be?

 

I know the old Formula Vee recipe is to turn the VW transaxle upside-down to make it work in a mid-engined application, as it will readily bolt up to the engine upside-down. I'm putting this in Post #2 in the hope that it doesn't elicit a tangent about air-cooled VWs which will get the thread shut down. It's just to show precedent where it seems to have worked without too much trouble.

 

If you ran a dry sump, a small flywheel and trimmed bellhousing it would allow the engine to be mounted lower. Liberty has 2 countershafts on sides so could be mounted straight up

 

@Ned Ludd ........I can’t say for sure whether or not Formula Vees ran their trans upside down, but I can say with certainty it was not necessary. To reverse rotation of the VW gearbox, the ring gear/carrier assemble is simply ‘flipped’ in the case to the opposite side of the pinion. Even VW did that at the factory for the bus/transporter models to accommodate the reduction gear box at the wheel end of the axle that changed the rotation.

‘Back in the day’, when transplanting Corvair engines into busses and dune buggies, the ring gear was flipped because the Corvair engine runs opposite rotation.

Running the trans case upside down would lower the engine relative to the ground if the trans was mounted to keep the swing axles level. In the later double jointed open axle design the engine trans can be raised or lowered a bit without regard to axle angle.

Ray

 

Warning:- VW content - I use this as an example only of what may work on other applications - but people have run the Passat trans upside down (as you can´t flip the diff on more modern trannies) in Vanagon busses for many years and high mileages, to get better and more gears. Of course you need suction to drain the oil and a different breather, but it seems there are no ill effects.