Do I want a Porsche 911 in my Renault 8?

I am okay with scope creep. I am also okay with a complete rebuild of the drivetrain and suspension from totally different cars into the R8. Hopefully ones that have a decent aftermarket following and parts availability in the future.

Are there any other rear engine, longitudinally mounted, transaxles that have an overdrive gear other than the ones in a Porsche 911? Bespoke aftermarket units maybe? Any VW ones? It seems all the late model Audi ones that are used for mid engine cars dont have the correct type of ring gear to be able to flip like the VW ones.

Having axle flanges for easy adaptability would be nice, also a less than a Porsche price tag. 

Am I missing something?

I thing I just need to pony up for a 901 or 915...

RossD said:

I am okay with scope creep. I am also okay with a complete rebuild of the drivetrain and suspension from totally different cars into the R8. Hopefully ones that have a decent aftermarket following and parts availability in the future.

Are there any other rear engine, longitudinally mounted, transaxles that have an overdrive gear other than the ones in a Porsche 911?

I sense a future addition to the "Box flares make everything awesomer" thread.

Are you really needing a rear engine gearbox or just a longitudinal transaxle?  

Renault UN1, for instance, was in a pile of stuff including vehicles with front engines.  

Air cooled VW transmission is a 3 speed with an overdrive 4th, if I recall correctly.

Nah, Porsche G50 is going to be the answer on this one I think.

Plenty strong, plenty of adapters for whatever engine you can dream of, and plenty for sale.

(Hotlink of a random R8 because it's a damn cool car)

Duke: Box flares will be up to my wife due to esthetics. We will see...

pres589: I need a longitudinal transaxle with the engine in the rear of the car, like a ACVW Beetle or Porsche 911. That's because that is the form that is in the car now.

Hungary Bill: So what are the different  pros/cons between the different 911 transaxles? I figured the earlier ones would be the cheaper ones.

915s are a lot more plentiful and cheaper than G50s, but the G50 shifts like a modern gearbox.  

915s were used in 911s for years and there are a million different combinations of ratios and final drives.  

http://www.gboxweb.com/915specs.html

With the swell of air cooled 911 prices, 915s and G50s are expensive as hell. If it's the only thing that works, what are you gonna do?  

Ransom and I just went through this looking for an appropriate transaxle for a rear engine Fiat. What we found in the aftermarket was that most of the units are vastly oversized. The Quaife and Hewland boxes are made to handle 500hp V8's. and are physically too large to fit in a small car. For the OEM options there was of course the Porsche 915, The Subaru trans outfitted with subarugears.com ring and pinion, The Renault box from a Delorean is surprisingly available! and not too terribly overpriced.  Then you get into things like flipping an Audi transmission upside down.

We went with a Sadev unit because it matched up best with our horsepower targets but even so the straight cut gear sets and final drive options were less than ideal. Even with it having the smallest case dimensions we are still having to cut the body and relocate suspension members to get it in there.

My suggestion would be to import a Renault R5 transaxle from a pre-1985 car? The cost of shipping while high is still less than rebuilding a core 915. Heck get the whole drivetrain from an early R5? I know around 85 they switched from longitudinal to transverse mounting so you need to be careful.

A Passat or Boxter trans upside down could also do the trick but be prepared to cut huge amounts of car out for clearance.

In reply to Jumper K Balls :

You could probably fine one stateside fairly cheap from a cast-off Europa too. Come to think of it, I may know where one is located a few hours from Ross. If it’s available. If it included the bellhousing a Zetec would bolt up too. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

You have my interest. Any additional info on the trans?

if you are going to run a 911 motor , then run a 911 gearbox , 

But how long is your R8 trans , I think they are pretty short ,  you may need to cut up your back seat area to fit the 915 box.

VW guys have been chasing this idea for ages and most end up putting an early 901 gearbox because its close in size to a VW gearbox ,.....

If you want to be a hero , cast up a gearbox housing that uses cheap 944 transmission guts and has a removable bell housing like a 70s VW bus.

and stranger ideas are rear engine Skodas and Tatras !

I have enough of new to me things I'm trying on this car that I don't need to be a hero and start casting metals (although I've considered it!). But no 911 engine. I like the idea of Ford 4 cylinders or something that revs really high and is a tiny displacement. The 1.8 Liter V6 Mazda KL engine is of interest to me. I'd still like to turbo something with Megasquirt.

I'd go 915. I actually prefer the cable clutch and the G50 does not shift like a modern trans, just more like a modern trans. They all need to warm up, need to go to 2nd before shifting into 1st and shift slower than most other "modern" transmissions. M y 996 still uses a G50 type trans so I live with this every day. I'm not sure if anyone makes a modified bus trans into a 5 speed but the type 2 transaxle can handle a descent amount of hp and torque. Also, why not a modified type 1 or type IV? Cheaper per bhp and tighter package so it'd be an easier fit.

RossD said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

You have my interest. Any additional info on the trans?

Do you get PMs through here? Or just email me firstname+lastname at yahoo. 

There is a VW Vanagon 5 speed gearbox ,  I drove my friends VW pickup with one in Australia , not sure if they got to the USA.....

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Yeah, they did. It's in the synchro. And it has a granny 1st gear. So it's really a 4 speed with a low gear added. But, I wonder if it could have a gear set change so that it would become a 4 speed with a high added.

In reply to markwemple :

this was not in a synchro , but like I said maybe they never got to the USA

I am warming up to the Renault UN1 since there should be parts available with Lotus and Delorean fans.

A VW box would be fine too if I can get a highway flier gear. Do the Hewland gears fit in the VW cases?

Rancho Performance transmissions in Fullerton California are the go to guys for VW gearboxes,

They have been doing VW trans for over 25 years

Started to work on a post then saw that you realized what I was on about with the UN1.

hate to say it, but I would go with the original 901 trans just because of the dog leg 1st

californiamilleghia said:

 

But how long is your R8 trans , I think they are pretty short ,  you may need to cut up your back seat area to fit the 915 box.

 

and stranger ideas are rear engine Skodas and Tatras !

 

 

I think Tyler already answered the question about the porsche boxes, honestly I had no idea of what sort of power levels etc you were considering so I went with the "hit it with a hammer approach".  The GT40 guys have been mating v8's to the G50 with a reasonable degree of success, so I was certain it'd work with anything you could plan with the R8.

With the Skoda idea, this is an area I could help in!  Skoda's are plenty and cheap in Hungary so if you had a model you wanted to pull a trans from, let me know and I could hook you up with some boots on the ground in the area.  Shipping would be the only difficult part.

If space is a concern, what about a Corvair box?

http://car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

IIRC the turbo corvair had something like 180hp?  So in theory it might work with what you're after (and it's a whole decimal point cheaper than a Porsche box!)

Also on the Hungary list might be a Zaporozecs (I call it "The Corvair-ski") Pictured below:

I got bored and found a Skoda transmission from a "120".  It's $50 and half a world away

https://auto.jofogas.hu/csongrad/Skoda_120_valto_77370320.htm

If you ask the Hungarians though, they'd say Skoda's quality went down a lot after the Skoda 100 (which is also an awesome car)

OOh!  Fiat 126p?

You might be able to buy the whole car for the price of that skoda transmission I just linked

 

Edit:  I wasn't far off.  $250 for the Polski Fiat https://www.hasznaltauto.hu/szemelyauto/polski_fiat/126/polski_fiat_126_650_p-13014879

In reply to Hungary Bill :

Just curious... any idea how much it would cost to get that Fiat (or a Skoda, or some other similarly hilarious car) over to the USA?  This for some reason is more intriguing to me than many of the JDM import options