Other WRX news

[BrandonDrums]

In one of the newer "why can't the 818 have AWD?" threads someone mentioned something that I think is more applicable and actually feasible to the next gen WRX.

http://www.motortrend.com/future/future_vehicles/1107_subaru_wrx_to_go_its_own_way/

If they build the next gen WRX on the Toyobaru chassis as it's kinda being hinted at (not based off of impreza chassis, will be shorter and lighter yet wider than the Impreza) then I would really want to see some innovation in the driveline allowing for better weight distribution. If the engine is slightly raised and the oil-pan is split into a u-shape or flattened, a driveshaft could come out of the front of the transmission, go under the engine into a separate front differential allowing the engine to be mounted up against the firewall completely behind the front axle.

You can see that possibility clearly in this picture, the front axles come out slightly below the level of the bottom of the engine. If you lower that point a little bit and shape the oil pan so a shaft could come straight out of that point on the current 5mt, you could send power to in front of the engine.
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/LOW145/1972%20914/engine2026.jpg

As you can see, there are 2 gear tunnels in the 5mt (as in the 6mt)
4031

The rear output comes from the top portion, the front comes from the bottom. If they just take that basic design and allow for a shaft to come out the front dropped down a few inches by a 1:1 direct gearset, it would be pretty darn easy to accomplish. The only real innovation would be for a oil pickup system that could pick up oil from both sides of the U and perhaps keep oil from sloshing from one chamber to the other under high g-forces.

Easy, I think they should do it.

[bromikl]

Easy, I think they should do it.

Easy for you to say. They just have to design a new transmission, drive shaft, front axles, add a front diff and completely redesign the oil pickup. And, as you mentioned, the engine would have to be raised.

(I just spent 20 minutes racking my brain to come up with a better solution, and I can't, short of incorporating the transmission into the engine or dual transmissions.)

I look forward to all electric drive.
AWD? Easy.
Transmission? What's that?
Launch Control, Traction Control and ABS? Just some lines of code.

[Oppenheimer]

...add torque vectoring, stability control, forward vs rear torque bias.

Think what computer control of ignition and fuel injection have done for the ICE (if only we had solonoid controled valves as well). If we had all electric drive (which could be powered by battery, Fuel Cell, ICE powered generator, some combination, whatever wins the electric power war), we'd have complete flexibility over how much power goes to each wheel at any given millisecond.

[spaceywilly]

Subaru has a Legacy GT race car that does something similar to what you describe, except the front driveshaft goes over the engine. This is not really practical for a road car (engine basically scrapes on the ground), but the way you describe might be. Hopefully they are at least looking into it. A dry sump would take car of the oil issue right?

http://www.subaru-msm.com/global/sgt2009/imgs/09015_2.jpg

http://www.subaru-msm.com/global/SUPERGT2011/index.html

[BrandonDrums]

Easy for you to say. They just have to design a new transmission, drive shaft, front axles, add a front diff and completely redesign the oil pickup. And, as you mentioned, the engine would have to be raised.

(I just spent 20 minutes racking my brain to come up with a better solution, and I can't, short of incorporating the transmission into the engine or dual transmissions.)

I look forward to all electric drive.
AWD? Easy.
Transmission? What's that?
Launch Control, Traction Control and ABS? Just some lines of code.

Well, I was being moderately sarcastic.

However, with this solution, they actually wouldn't have to design a new transmission, front axles or a new front diff. As I said, they could use the existing transmission with a slightly altered housing so they could put in a drive shaft roughly where the existing front diff is in the current transmission. They could then simply make a housing for the front diff and use the existing half-shafts for the front wheels just have it be in front of the engine.

The only major hurdle for this is getting the drive shaft under the engine which would require some trickery with the oil pan and therefore the oil pickup system. All in all, that's not nearly as difficult as designing a 1.6L direct injected flat 4 (which literally doesn't exist right now) with a high-tech twin scroll turbocharger that is capable of over 300hp in a daily driven street car on a brand new chassis with a completely separate body and interior from the already designed 2012 Impreza. If you read the article, all it talks about is how Subaru is separating "WRX" from the Impreza, the next generation WRX and STI will be built on an independent or at least separate platform from the Impreza and that they are going to make the next gen WRX/STI more "Hardcore" and more 'competitive in world motor sports'

[jimgood]

I like the design spacewilly posted. Run the front prop shaft up over the engine. That's pretty clever. If the engine is rear-mid mounted and you don't like the prop shaft that high, put a gear box just in front of the engine to drop it down again.