Yikes! (was: Will Owen's Dream Car)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Elliott, critical of front clutch/rear gearbox solutions, writes "Yikes!
Can you imagine how fast 2nd gear synchros would fail if the entire driveshaft
were added to the rotating mass of the input shaft? - - IMHO, the torque tube
is a nice solution, but the clutch very definitely belongs at the front of the
gearbox, not the back of the engine."

No quarrel, but many of the most revered Alfas of yore - the glorious 8C 2900,
the World Champion 159 GP car, as well as the less successful 8C, 12C, and 16C
GP cars, did have transaxles at the rear and clutches on the engine. Of
course, a reason they never had 2nd gear synchro failures is that they didn't
have synchros on any gear. Shifting relied more on skill than on mechanical
ingenuity, as did many other aspects of driving. (At one time the use of
either the clutch or the brake was considered a crutch for beginners or for
the terminally inept; real drivers knew how to drive.)

Cheers

John H.
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