Building in my head again! What drivetrain has the shortest length, from front pulley to rear of differential (or centerline of rear axle, please clarify which)? Trying to envision something mid-engine, but dont want to run a "modern" FWD setup that turns the engine cross-ways. All combinations are possible. Thanks in advance for the input.
The old Eldorado and Toronado had the engine sitting on top of the differential, front to back. The transmission was a modified TH400 thru the late 70s, then a modified TH200 The transmission had the converter bolted to the back of the engine, driving a chain, which drove the rest of the transmission. The differential was stuck on the end of the transmission where the tailhousing used to be.
easily solved with three items: You, a tape measure, and a salvage yard. Item four could be a good digital camera. "if you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around" dj
a VW transaxle turned around with a Mazda rotory in front of it would be fairly short or a Pantera...
A Corvair transaxle with a Crown kit that puts a smallblock in front of it for a mid engine deal. A friend of mine has one in a Corvair. Makes it a mid engine Corvair.
Audi transaxles are used by many of the "supercar replica" guys, but they are marginal on torque capacity for a built V8. IMO The Toro/Eldo is by far the most "correct" for hot rodding, and gives you a lot of engine options with bellhousing adaptors. There was a guy in Fresno in the 80s that had a VW bus with an Eldo/500ci setup mid mounted. Butt ugly, but went like stink. It left my 68 340S Barracuda for dead on Blackstone Av one day! Thinking outside the box, Bob McKee of llinois built a number of transaxles using quickchange rears mated to T10s for Can-Am cars back in the 60s. I have an idea for the same thing using a Toploader, but the project it was for got shelved...
Not mine, but it's a A series BMC (Sprite, Midget, Morris) adapted to a VW transaxle. A fairly common in smallbore formula/sports racer setup back in the 60s-70s.
Really cool, but I need something with a little more oomph! I'm a SBC man, but the full Corvair setup, or the Crown V8 Corvair setup sounds cool. Any other "traditional" ideas?
looking in my Tex Smith book i see lots of old rear engine dragsters look like they have Ford rear axles or maybe Halibrand type QC's and are damn short from axle to water pump. can't say there's a transmission in there, lots of enterprising guys ran off torque alone and damn a gearbox. short as a 3spd Ford 'box is, hooked up directly to an axle it couldn't be too long. i need more pictures/expalnation now of what those guys were up to.... i sketched up a bullshit idea once of how i'd put a bigass V8 in a minitruck by putting it behind the cab, still had to move the rear axle back unless i used a Eldo or Toronado setup. i figure a 500ci Cadillac in a LUV truck would be able to haul ass....
Don't know much about the Audi transaxle, but they appear to be fairly short. http://www.team321.com/
Mount an early Ford closed-drive tranny directly to a banjo rear with this adaptor. It would require a solid-mounted rear end however.
I've got it in my faded old mind that the Crown Corvair set up used the latest model Corvair transmission. Supposedly this was a Muncie model that shared parts with the V8 trans and when converting the trans for the V8 Corvair you were really just putting the V8 stuff in the Corvair case. That's maybe over simplifying it and I may not be 100% accurate but it's close.
I believe that would bolt up to a quickchange as well...? You could go IRS at that point (as most of the setups discussed would have to be).
you might not have to IRS if you built a "subframe" to carry the engine/trans as in the Hemi Under Glass 'Cuda and the LRW; not saying it's gonna ride like a cadillac but you could engineer it to have vertical movement and still retain solid rear axle on coils/panhard bar. whatever you got in mind , you got me interested in it! tell us more.... and that adaptor was exactly what i was trying to explain about the traditional rear engine diggers. thanks for the pic!
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