Anybody considering or heard of a MR buildup using an All-wheel drive setup?

Was thinking of hacking up an old Impreza drivetrain and going down the 3piece chassis road.

Love to hear from anyone who has seen anything that might save me reinventing a square wheel.

The mate i bought my engine off was replacing it with a wrx engine, and that is mid engined, so it can be done. What he had in mind was a bit complicated but next time i speak to him i will ask him, i can get his email address if you want so u can ask him urself. I dont think he has the engine it yet though as he has been tinkering with his turbo mx5 engined mgb at the moment.

Aus-sambo,

The problem I see with using the Subaru AWD powertrain is that, installed in a mid-engined layout (eg engine behind the seats and in front of the axle line) the rear output shaft is going to be somewhere in the area where you might put a tow-bar If you turn the whole lot around so that you've got a pseudo Porsche 996 with the engine aft of the rear wheels, then everyting turning the wrong way so you've got 1 forward and 5 reverses

Lamborghini have used a lovely layout for their drivetrains in the Countach and Diablo (not sure if the Murcielago is the same too). The flywheel is at the front end of the engine and drives forward to what looks somewhat like a conventional front engine, RWD transmission. In the original RWD cars (Countach LP400 etc) the output shaft of the transmission the dropped down, passed under the clutch and flywheel, and came to a diff mounted in the back of the sump (with it's own oil supply). AWD just means adding a centre diff somewhere under the drivers elbow and running an extra prop shaft forward.

If you could make a 1:1 diff centre for a conventional transverse FWD powertrain, then you could install one of those longways and run a shaft forward and back from there. Bit too much reduction with the normal 1:3.7 or so as a centre diff though

So, in short, I don't see any easy way of doing it. I'd love for someone else to prove me wrong, because a WRX drivetrain in the back of a sub-700kg car would be..... fun?!?

Dominic

quote:

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Originally posted by TheGecko
.......in a mid-engined layout (eg engine behind the seats and in front of the axle line).........

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The fellow building the DP1 is doing an all wheel drive setup but his engine is mounted in the passenger seat area and is running two chan drive diffs.

There was a thread debating the merits of a long chain drive setup in the BEC forum a while ago -- opinion was that chain stretch and weight would be an issue. Anyone know if the belts that some motorcycles are using now are better able to deal with long runs?

Cheers, Ted