The Tranny is directly bolted to the differential in both manual and auto setups. The clutch is up front and the trans is at the other end of the torque tube, which you would have to shorten as well. The biggest hurdle with getting the trans back there is actually the interior. There just isn't enough room to get the trans between the seats. The C5's have more room from the back of the seat to the rear axle than a C3 which allows them to stuff a trans back there. Also the center console will probably have to be raised up to clear the torque tube. Not a big deal if you are fabbing a new interior, but if you want to keep it stock looking, good luck.

 

yes, both are a transaxle diff w/ a trans mounted in front of it. I'm not sure how those philly motorsports people pulled it off but the transmission would sit almost directly between the seats, it'd probably be very difficult to cram it all in there.

 

One of the local C-5's told me that with just his 12 psi CSupercharger and MT slicks he was able to explode the rearend. So I'm wondering if the new LS-7 equiped C-6 is some very heavy duty.

 

I like the whole trans-axle thing, not to mention 40+ year gap in the design... It can be done no doubt about it, you are in for some serious fabricating-party if you decide to go that route. I say go for it!

 

If Jay Leno can do it in a front wheel drive Tornado, why not a vette. Looks like it's not that big of deal, just glass around it and put in a fuel cell. The biggest expense will be modding the driveshaft tube 3 or 4"'s. I say go for it.

Just think if the extra foot space you could add up front.

 

I have a bunch of C6 suspension/driveline photos like the one below and bigger. I can post them if you would like. I had been thinking of exactly the same project as a way to A) switch to smaller half-shafts with CV instead of u joints, B) eliminate the trailing arms, and C) Mount better wheels/tires in back without freaky offset trailing arms.


I was surprised though, I really thought the C6 used coilovers all around but it uses fiberglass springs front and back.

 

Go look under your car and see if you think a T56 is going to fit about right between your seats about where the parking brake is.

If you think you can get it there, than I think your a go.

 

GURU, allthough I agree with your comment above, I fail to see how differant that article is from stock...course all I saw was outside...but the body looked fairly stock reasonably, anyway...

GENE

 

The tranny is in the rear and bolted to the rear differential. Our seats are so far back that we are sitting right in front of the differential, so if we fabbed up a system for the transaxle, the T56 would still be where our butts are.

Unless I missed the question you are asking.

 

This is what i'm thinking. Damn near impossible. I'd rather see Monty build a car that could handle as well as a c5/c6 than just do something to be different.

I'd concentrate in getting really wide tires all around, get the center of gravity lower, reduce unsprung weight and fix handling quirks yada yada yada.

Build a car that could whip a new c6 zo6 on a road course. I'm starting to believe Monty has the skills and resolve to do that. I apologize for doubting him in the past.

rock on.

Edit: How about taking weight out of the birdcage and using lighter body panels and hood to get the weight down to 2500 pound area? Aluminum frame?????

 

For 100K you can get these guys to build you an aluminum birdcage:

http://www.racingicons.com/gs/birdcage.htm

 

buy a welder that can do aluminum and do it yourself

 

Better check how strong the rear ends are first, I have personally seen a lane shut down for the evening at a drag strip from a stock C5 with street tires leaving 1/4 mile of rear end oil ( and parts ) down the track

 

Hmm... I'm thinking about how one could make more room under the car for the transmission without making the seats 12 inches wide.

1. Raise the body in relation to the centerline of the crankshaft and the pinion gear on the differential. More room for the transmission.

2. Drop the engine, transmission and differential lower in the chassis relative to their current position. The new transmission tunnel would not have to be as tall.

- Does anyone know the center to center distance on the front a-arms on a late model vette? Could you sink the engine any deeper while maintaining tire location?

3. Could you offset the rear spindles, so the centerline of the axle is forward relative to the output shafts? Move the differential housing back, along with the transmission... and retain the wheel/fenderwell location.

4. One could drop the engine and transmission as low as possible, and install another gear box, an input and output shaft geared together at 1:1 ratio... to drop the transmission by the radius of both gears.

5. Gut the doors, remove the interior trim behind the doors... and widen the cockpit, without changing exterior dimensions.

6. Run a pro-street rake to the body, (Spacers on the differential mount to lift the frame.) then bring the floors back to level, put a diffuser type underbelly to hide the suspension bits.

7. Cut the driveshaft in two, put in a beefy cross member with a pillow block and a shaft through it. The transmission then points downward... so the tunnel tapers.

8. A skinny transmission that is tall instead of the new "short and fat" style.

 

OK so lets think about all this a minute. we are being slaves to the rear transaxle frame of thought.

maybe you could rig up a torque tube from the back of a camaro T56 to the corvette rear end. so you still have the front mounted transmission.

Might have to move where the engine and transmission are bolted, and your gonna have to make up your own torque tube, which I am assuming is like a solid axle between the rear and the front, instead of that device with u-joints.

But if thats what you want to do and relocate your parking brake, its a thought.

 

Brilliant Guru!

Use a standard transmission location, bolted to the bellhousing... and an adapter of some sort to the C5/C6 differential housing.

Forest, trees.

 

Why are we not just extending the torque tube? It's just a driveshaft in a tube!


http://www.brcorvetteclub.com/events...5transaxle.htm

I don't like lifting the body or lowering the drivetrain. You're either making the car look funny or decreasing ground clearance. However I would definitely consider spacing the engine and drivetrain assembly further back in the car, modifying firewall as necessary. The only potential negative I see from that is ending up with a 1/2 visible, impossibly to work on engine like the F-bodies had but that's all in the execution. What do you think of the current possibilities Monty?

How about getting your hands on whatever they use in the C6R, what is it Quaife or XTrac or something? Now that would be $$$trick$$$ !

-Chris

 

Can someone explain to me the benefit of the torqe tube and the C5/C6 setup? the C3 per the magazine articles I have read has a 53/47 weight distribution. So an aluminum engine, radiator, headers should get you most of the way there.

There is enough info around to fab up a 6 link for the rear with coil-overs, and there are already coilover kits for the front.

Also there is enough expertise to optomize these things around.

What would the C5/C6 setup gain you ultimately in the end besides neat engineering for neat engineering sake? It probably can be done, might be creative but it probably can be done. Is it worth the effort outside the academic?

 

It was just a thought. I'll admit that I like doing stuff just for the challange and I like fabricating stuff. A few years ago almost everyone was telling me I couldn't build a streetable/reliable 1200hp twin turbo engine that ran on pump gas and I did. Now it's not uncommon.

I was reading the new April Popular Hot Rodding and they have a feature on a custom '71 Cuda, "The Greatest Street Machine Ever Built" - according to the article. It has some mighty impressive fabrication and features a transaxle with C5 ZO6 T56 mounted behind the engine. Then I was looking at the new Summit Catalog which has a centerfold section on the new Motion '69 Camaro's. Both cars feature custom a-arm rear suspensions. Pretty clever fabricating. I've already done the huge horsepower thing and as I mentioned I've got a clean sheet of paper with this car so I've been thinking of really putting alot of attention towards the suspension and brakes. Something like aluminum or tubular chromoly unequal-length a-arm suspension front and rear with 6-piston, 14" rotor brakes.

If I decide to do it, it would be with the tranny located in the conventional position. That was my thoughts all along. I do not want to totally cut up the interior of the car in an attempt to locate the tranny at the rear. As mentioned, our cars already have pretty good front to rear weight balance, and with the aluminum block, heads, radiator, etc I'll be using it should improve a little more towards 50/50.

 

You can't just move the transaxle further back to clear the seats, because then your rear wheels would be further back as well and not line up with the wheel sells anymore.

You would need to shorten the torque tube not lengthen it as the C5 has a longer wheelbase than the C3.