front engine, rear transaxle?

[Carnut99]

So silly question but purely out of curiosity has there ever been a car or race car that has used a similar setup as in the Porsche 924/944 and corvettes with an engine in the front and a transaxle in the back but instead, the clutch is in the back with the transaxle and the torque tube is coupled to the flywheel flange.

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Not silly at all. Chris White in PA.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=13200

[rx7locost]

If I understand the question, 1962 Pontiac Tempest used a similar setup with the automatic trans. The driveshaft was connected to the engine. The torque converter was in the rear. However, with the manual trans, the clutch was up front with the engine. Both used a "flexible" driveshaft. It was short-lived.

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Totally overlooked the "clutch at the transaxle" part.
Chris had a normal engine mounted clutch.
The porsche shaft is not flexible.

[Carnut99]

Totally overlooked the "clutch at the transaxle" part.
Chris had a normal engine mounted clutch.
The porsche shaft is not flexible.

Yea that's why I figure it may be silly, The question came up when I went to a motorcycle meet and saw a Motus and it was explained to me the engine has just the flywheel and the gearbox use a normal motorcycle clutch and I started to think how someone could implement that in a car if they wanted the engine up front.

[Sam_68]

There was this:



It was a Lola Mk. 1 'replica', based on Alfa mechanicals with the Alfa Twin Cam engine and this style of Alfa Romeo transaxle:


As far as I can recall, it didn't have a torque tube though - the propshaft was flexible. Biggest problem was that the clutch housing made for a very wide transmission tunnel.

I owned a Westfield FW400 for a good few years that had a Hewland transaxle at the back and a front-mounted Rover K-series engine, but that had the clutch and flywheel attached to the engine.

[BostonWill]

The Porsche 944 & 928 used a transaxle but the clutch was on the flywheel. So did the C7 Corvette. The nice part about such a config is if you move the motor forward a bit, the footwell can be larger because the connecting transition of the transmission need not be there and the tunnel can get smaller sooner. Plus, it helps with the front to rear weight balance.

[x19.driver]

The Alfa Romeo GTV6 has the clutch and transmission at the rear.

[Sam_68]

The Alfa Romeo GTV6 has the clutch and transmission at the rear.

Yes, that whole generation of 1980s/1990s Alfas (the GTV6, 75, Giulietta and SZ) used the transaxle pictured above.

Note that the gearbox (and clutch housing) lie ahead of the rear axle line, though: what you really want, for best weight distribution and narrow transmission tunnel, is to hang the gearbox out behind the rear axle line and have the clutch housing just in front of the diff. The only problem then is that it gives you a very long propshaft, which you need to split and provide with intermediate support bearings to avoid 'whirling'.

As an aside, the Alfa transaxle is monster of a thing, weight-wise - I think it's one of the heaviest transaxles I've ever handled.