Has anyone ever seen or heard of an air-cooled VW drivetrain (or similar rear engine configuration) being swapped into something powering the front wheels? I know it wouldn't make much sense, but when has that ever stopped this crowd?
I thought of this for some reason after seeing a Baja Bug cruising the neighborhood. The next thing I thought of was fwd locost, maintaining the traditional proportions. I know, I'm sick.
Three wheeled Trike.. the BlackJack Zero uses it with either AC vw or Motoguzzi power
Definatly not as pretty with an aircooled VW hanging out front
I was thinking specifically of maintaining the relative position of the engine to the transmission. In this case, transmission in front. The novelty of the idea (to me) is that you would have a fwd front mid-engine configuration.
I've always thought a fun hell-of-it car would be something like a '40s Ford with a Porsche 911 driveline powering the front wheels.
What was that American sportscar with the Porsche flat-6 up front?
What we got in the states in the late 80's and early 90's as the VW fox was apparently sold in brazil with the aircooled motor.
Take the motor and trans from the rear engined VW, flip the ring gear and install up front in the Fox. done and done.
In reply to ditchdigger:
That puts the engine in front of the transmission, not quite what I'm talking about.
If you could machine up the right parts to put CV joints on the VW transmission ,it would work fine. You would just be moving the complete engine and transmission to the front of the car and the engine would end up well behind the axle center line. The whole thing would be relatively light for use in a locost.
Ah. Then look at the drivetrain layout of a renault R4 or R5/Le car. All renault did was move their rear engine drivetrain up front.
In reply to ditchdigger:
Now that's what I'm talking about!
In reply to ditchdigger:
Did a clutch job of one of those in my shop. Not a lot of fun!!
Back in history, there was a small german car, fwd. The engine was what you would think a water cooled VW would look like.
Late 50's early 60's Goliath/ Borgward Hansa 1100.
