Porsche G50 V Audi 016

Hi,

I found myself talking to an engineer at an independent Porsche specialist today about the G50 box about which I know very little. I was interested in the fact that even though they only deal with Porsches he was trying to persuade me to use an Audi box instead (he didn’t know at this time that I already had a G50).

His reasoning was that with the early G50 boxes you have to be deliberately slow across the gears to avoid problems, whereas the Audi box is much quicker and smoother. It’s too late now as I have got the box, adapter plate, and now some expensive clutch parts, but I would still be interested in other opinions.

Regards

Nick
 

Lynn Larsen

Lynn Larsen
Nick,

As you will find if you look over some of the posts about the G50, if one had to identify a weak point in the G50, it is the shift forks. Do keep in mind the term weak point is a relative term. I would not tear down a G50 just to change the shift forks, but if I ever did tear one of mine down, I would put billet forks in it. I don't recall what you plan to do with your car, but if you are building a race car, then I would talk to someone like Powerhaus II, Bobby Hart at California Motorsports (actually in Lake Havasu City, AZ) or Patrick Motorsports about race prepping your transaxle. If on the other hand, you are going to use your car on the street, I would avoid dumping the clutch or doing much speed shifting with either one of the transaxles.

The one area where the Audi has it hands down on the G50 is in price; although the gap is narrowing, it is still there. The argument using this fact is, "I can break and buy 3 Audis for the price of a Porsche box." If you don't mind the hassle and down time, then this makes sense. I don't mean to say that the Audi is not a viable transaxle to use, but there is no doubt in my mind that it is a bit more fragile than the Porsche box. That said, people have seemingly had good luck with putting a backer plate on the bulkhead that houses the bearing just behind the pinion gear, a common failure point when applying lots of torque in a very abrupt manner.

Don't take my word for it though. If you want the opinion of someone who has seen every kind of transaxle put behind every kind of engine, talk to the people at Kennedy Engineered Products. The last time I read their catalog, they actually rated the G50 as stonger than the ZF 5DS25! Personally, I think they are very close, BUT the Porsche box has 30 year newer technology, which in practical terms means that they have synchronizers that work and will continure to work for a much longer period of time. Now if you buy an RBT transaxle (BIG $$) you will over come much (if not all) of technology advantage of the Porsche G50 family.

But, isn't it great that we can have these discussions! In the late '60s and early '70s when I first had the desire to build a midengined V8 car there were these choices: Corvair, Olds Tornado (auto only) or the ZF. At a time when you could buy a Pantera for $10K, you could go buy a ZF for $5K! And, an annual salary of $20K was BIG BUCKS!

Regards,
Lynn
 
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