Originally Posted by
BrandonDrums
Yeah, most FWD traverse engine cars would work great for a mid-engine swap. To a certain extent, it makes more sense in terms of simplicity to use a traverse engine: No center diff to remove, you can re-use the donor shifter linkages etc.
However FWD cars don't have rear hubs with input spindles for drive axles. Thus, Subaru based kits make more sense, you get the input spindle on the rear wheels and don't have to worry about finding rear hubs that take the same axle or modifying existing axles to adapt them in length and spindle size with another model. Even when swapping Subaru transmissions with other Subaru transmissions between different Subaru models, that axle/spindle mating dance is one of the more painful challenges to overcome.
But if someone wanted a powerful, durable naturally aspirated 4 cylinder, there are many better donor options than Subaru drive trains and all of them are traverse FWD setups. N/A Subaru's have always lagged behind the industry in power and efficiency vs. the competition. Even the new Impreza had to sacrifice power to catch up to the fuel economy of everything else in it's class. Meanwhile Hyndai's 2.0T puts out more power than the current WRX and has better fuel economy than the base Impreza.
I think Dave said longer term he wanted this chassis to accept a wide range of donor powertrains. Since it's already being developed for TDI's or Ecoboosts, that opens up the options in terms of having room available, sounds like the space will be there. The challenge will be the axles, suspension linkages and hubs, getting them the right length and size to match up and having the proper clearances to put a drive axle through the suspension parts. I feel confident that FFR can work it all out though.