Were any of the vauxhaul V6 or rover KV6's mated to a longitudinal *FWD* box that anyone knows of?

[Edited on 7/9/10 by coyoteboy]

there was a fwd v6 vectra wasn't there?

Think it was transverse box though

they were all transeverse.

Longitudinal FWD tends to be an Audi thing

sorry, yeah, i get you now. you'd probably be best looking at audi then. if you really want a vauxhall V6, maybe you could do an adapter plate?

[Edited on 7/9/10 by blakep82]

I don't want a vauxhaul specifically, I'd looked over the pug v6 too, and the ford, I wanted to look at the possibility of a short V6 in mid mounted mode. I looked at audis but they have horrifically low power output - their 2.8's are rated to 170hp and IIRC are a cast block so probably weigh more kg than hp produced?!

[Edited on 7/9/10 by coyoteboy]

Renault 21 (Txi/Turbo) & the 25 were longitudinal FWD. 4pot and v6 with turbo models.

Again not sure if the weight or power output would be any good though.

A lesser known option is the Honda Legend 3.2 or 3.5. They have a longitudinal V6 with a gearbox on the back that then drives forward to a diff on the side of the sump. Sort of a bit like the front of a Sierra 4x4, although the drive to the front is all enclosed rather than a seperate prop. Ally V6s with decent output too. Should make for a fairly short V6 drivetrain for a middy. Downside is there aren't many about over here, and a manual one might be near enough impossible to find (or even actually impossible!).



[Edited on 7/9/10 by Liam]

What would be the advantage in using something like that in a midi over just using a transverse FWD set up with a reversed gear linkage?

Engine weight possibly much further forwards. Nicer packaging and look, better routing of pipework. From a purely aesthetic basis imagine nice alu plenums of a vectra V6 engine mounted longitudinally in a midi. Mmmm. But function over form of course, just trying to find my cake and eat it since most ally block v6's weigh about the same as the cast block i4 I have.

I'd like to get close to this in an ideal world!


That honda appears to be a bit too far over the axle line - it's bordering on rear-engined in that config. There's one on ebay at the moment without the gearbox.

Suppose the other option is the EJ20/25 with 4wd tranny welded up but it's so damned heavy and a bit of a botch job.

[Edited on 7/9/10 by coyoteboy]

The WR3 SDR V Storm uses a Scooby lump and tranny and Simon appears to have that working quite well.
SDR Link

The audi engine wont be much if any heavier than the vauxhall which is also a steel block and alloy heads.

TBH though Id be using the Audi V8 but thats just me

Can't afford a V8 - I did look at it

I've considered the scooby setup a few times and it keeps coming up in my mind but ultimately everyone I know with one has had transmission troubles, piston slap and something expensive go wrong pretty much annually. Now I know it's going in a lighter car, but by welding up the centre diff you're doubly loading the front transmission and that's not good on a box that's apparently not overly tough as it is.

Pah, scratch that then. Maybe I should just go back to a transverse 3S-GTE as I've been planning for ages. The Blingy V'ness just caught my heartstrings but if I have to drop to an Audi lump to do it it's not done properly

what gearbox does the noble use with the v6 duratec, the v6 3.0 out the jags has 240bhp and all alloy/compact, mate that to whatever noble use and you have a nice package, or does the noble keep it transvers, i know its in the back

[Edited on 7/9/10 by bj928]

Transverse in the Noble. And to be honest, if it's good enough for them, and the Honda NSX, and the Lotus Elise, and the Toyota MR2, it's probably good enough for anyone. Longitudinal just looks cooler though .

Don't be tempted by the Noble though! 3.0 blocks are very hard to come by and the Arrows rods are in very short supply and about £280 each.
Fortunately this is not from first hand experience but my mate is a bit sick.

later Nobles used an inline 'box, but purely as the Dura V6 with bigger turbos started to kill the Ford transverse derived boxes.
The inline boxes were lots of pennies though, added £6-£10k to car build costs according to whom you believe. also moved the engine forward in the chassis and with greater amount of gearbox hanging out the back. Transverse OEM engine box packages tend to be pretty tough.
In the Nobles, the Ford boxes tend to suffer only with the bigger T28 turbos on the 3L cars, the 2.5s with T25s or 28s tend to survive pretty well. Also Ford boxes are ten a penny at the scrappy, and you can probably get a choice of final drives and gearsets from diesels 4 post and V6s to play with. Nobles used both 5 speed and 6 speed transverse boxes

how about this

Jag palmer gearbox

Jag palmer

The V8 is £500 quid all on lol. I'd like to see you get a decent V6 mated to a box in an inline mid engine layout for much less.

Also, the later V6's are 200bhp....

[Edited on 7/9/10 by alistairolsen]

quote:

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Originally posted by jacko
how about this

Jag palmer gearbox

Jag palmer

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oooh jacko - that's car porn. How unfair! More from me then!

More Keating


Some Atom closeup detail:







alistair - which V8/inline setup is £500? Or did I mis-read that? See I'm not willing to drop in a V8 if it only makes 200-250 as I can do that with my eyes shut and for not much more than £500 from a 4pot. But if it offered easy huge power and the grins of twice the pots and that lovely sound I could be tempted

[Edited on 7/9/10 by coyoteboy]

A mate of mine picked up a 4.2 v8 for £500 with the ecu and everything to run it from Ebay. The boxes arent expensive and realistically for what youre trying to do your box options are Audi, porsche and Hewland!

The later V6s make 200bhp, but for an extra 300 quid or so Id be having the V8 and 300bhp just for the noise. Youre not going to build a Le Man style mid engine car for little enough for the £300 to matter in the long term

Maybe my solution here is non-standard thinking. I've wanted a 4wd kit but don't like the packaging (front end) or weights. I've wanted V8 but don't like the weight. I'd like sequential, but can't afford a custom box. Instead of a V6/V8 and finding a gearbox to suit, why not go Z-cars esque and run twin V4's, one feeding rear and one feeding front. Combined weight of two VFR750s is about 120kg ish, combined power is about 200-220hp, combined torque is about 140lbft. A bit extra weight for two diffs and two sets of driveshafts I suppose, but the engines are £150 a piece!