Mendeola Transaxles

[Ricky]

I was flicking through our "Local" Perth Street Car Magazine and stumbled on an interesting article relating to Hi Performance "Tatum Spyder" Dune Buggies.

The one in the current mag uses a twin turbo LS1 with 900hp and coupled to a Mendeola transaxle.

Have any of you guys stateside heard of / know much about these. From what I can see these may be a good alternative to our current gear box selection limitations although they look like a heavily modified Porsche unit.

According to the info on the attached website they can be built to take up to 1500hp. They appear to have a selection of gear and diff ratios as well. In addition they can do a sequential shift option.

http://www.ranchoperformance.com/transaxles/mendeola.html

Cheers,
RV

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Rick,

Hard to say for sure from the photos, but I would say this is a custom cast case with some Porsche internals. There are several references to 930 parts. These are the 930 transaxles used on pre-G50 turbo cars. They are tank-like 4 speeds, but the issue I see with this particular offering is that the final drive ratio is going the wrong way: lower ratio. This make very good sense for off road use, but we need a higher ratio, IMHO.

Good eye for catching this. Who knows, if they would be willing to provide a higher R&P ratio, it could make a good alternative. It obviously can handle some torque!!

Regards,
Lynn

 

[Tim Kay]

Mendeola originally came about to replace the Volkswagen 4 speed for offroad racing. Another, even stronger box, is the Fortin gearbox used in offroad and rally cars with much success in the Paris-Dakar as well.

I immediately considered the Fortin for my GT (I currently have Fortin in my sandcar and many of my friends have Mendeola's). Fortin uses Hewland gears, sequential shifting, 4, 5 & 6 speed options. All the gear ratios you could possibly want ($$$). They have had some success and experience installing them in a couple race Porsche'.

Fortin's boxes are straight gear dog ring shifting, clutchless. Medeola's sequential box is dog gear shifting as well although their standard boxes are sychromesh.

Expect to pay USD $6K-11K for Mendeola, USD $15K-$21K for Fortin.

Not only are these very pricey trannys but Fortin’s height and length will not fit in a GT40, Mendeola’s are even larger and exceed 200 lbs /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[andys]

The Mendeola site for some reason, is not comming up. They do make a five speed.The 1500HP they (Mendeola) speak of is in sand, where shock loading is quite a bit different than on pavement. They did tell me however, that there's a guy drag racing a 900HP car of some sort using their transaxle. The gears they use I believe are made in England. The 930 and 935 parts such as stub axles, hubs, and high misalignment CV's appear to be very well made.
Andy

http://www.mendeolatransaxles.com/

 

[Tim Kay]

Mendeola caters to the sand car enthusiast / weekend warrior. They are no doubt the major tranny suppier for that industry. Simply because of the price range they are affordable and dependable for the application, easily handling 200hp – 450hp. Typically a USD $6K-$8K investment. Four speed standard H-pattern shift.

The tranny that they claim handles 1500hp is what they recommend for the offroad truck series in a 5 speed, more expensive. It's a very large gear box, wouldn't even come close to fitting in a GT40. Their other offering, a sequential 4 speed (also a larger box) at USD $11,000, only a year on the market. So the verdict is still out on that box.

To my knowledge Mendeola can't claim to have won any races with it either. Like I mentioned above, Fortin handles the horsepower as well if not better. And they have the race wins to prove it. Fortin caters to the race industry more-so than Mendeola.