Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

Ron Earp

Ron Earp

Admin
I just received a catalog from Taylor race Engineering. They've got a lot of transaxles (7) for race cars and I am wondering if anyone has investigated these for GT40 use. Might be pricey, but on the other hand, if they handle what we need it'd be a lot better than beefing up a street transaxle for track use.

Listed they have:

Hewland Webster Mark 9
Kewland Mark 8
Hewland NST
Hewland LD200
Staffs Transaxle
FT200/FG
Standard Forumla Mazda

Just by looking at them, which I don't really believe gives you a picture of how they hold up, it looks like the Hewland NST, LD200, and the Staffs Transaxle are pretty beefy units. I've seen the Formula Mazda units in the FM cars and they only have to put up with wankel engine torque (none) so I don't think they'd cut it. The others look small.

No prices are given for complete units, but I'm sure it isn't cheap. Anyone know anything about these units?

R
 
A

Chris P.

Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

I've worked on a Staffs but it was in a 2.0liter formula car making 150hp. They used the same gearbox in Formula Atlantic too - up to 220 or 240hp but they became unreliable from what I was told. I don't know if that's the only box they ever made though. I have to say though, it was great to work on.

The Hewland Mk8/9 stay away from - they are VW beetle boxes that were adapted over to quickchange race boxes. Great for a formula ford, but that's about it.

The LD200 was another 2.0 liter box - Hewland lists it's torque rating as 160 lb-ft. The casing looks beefy, but it's small.
 
aladinsane

Tim Kay

Lifetime Supporter
Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

Ron,

Be kind to our Wankels /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

You'd be surprised of the torque I have. 480rwhp\425ft\lb on 28lb boost. No torque is right when speaking low end, it all comes in at over 5000-7500 rpm /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif You just gotta drive them like you stole it, fun stuff but not where bottom end torque is a must.
 
Ron Earp

Ron Earp

Admin
I'm not suprised at that, I love Wankels. But Formula Mazda gets no turbo and they don't make much torque at all, even at the lofty 11k they get spun. They do wail though and run hard! There is a neat 3rd Gen RX7 ITE/SP(?) track car that is local and it is fast, fast, fast. Fellow runs about 25-28lbs of boost he indicated so he might be in your range of power as well.

Doesn't looks like these transaxles will do the job for V8s. They look good in the drawings though, but it is hard to tell how large they are. Definitely easy to work on!
 
R

Russ Noble

GT40s Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

Ron, you're right a Hewland is definitely the way to go if you can afford it. I think you would need as a minimum a DG300 which should just do a 302 derivative and 500hp any more than that and I think you would be safer with an LG600. The LG600 I read somewhere was also homologated for Le Mans so you have the bonus that you would be staying with the original spec.

Regards
 
R

Richard Timte

Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

Ron,

Taylor race is 5 miles from my house. I have talked with Craig Taylor many times over which transaxle to use. All these boxes in his catalog are for small output cars (formula ford FF1600 and FF2000, formula mazda, formula atlantic ect.) The LD200 is rated at 160 ft lbs ,the FTR is rated at 240 ft lbs and the MK9 is rated at 190 Ft lbs. These boxes are small.
 
M

Mick

Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

I have had a Email from William Hewland. He recommended their NTL 6 speed sequential transaxle, however he advised it was best suited for race application but looking at the WEB site they appear to do a road version used in the Ferrari 360. Obviously new adpter, gearlinkage and drive shafts would be required. Additional benifit is better driveshaft angle. Try this link www.hewland.com/svga/productrange/nlt.htm cost is extreme in pounds 13,720. as group it may be possible to reduce the cost.
 
R

roaldin

Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

Taking advantage of this thread slightly... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
If anybody has a Mk5 Hewland for sale or a lead to one please let me know. A friend is trying to restore a small open wheeler McLaren and apparently the box is unusable.

Tim.
 
R

Russ Noble

GT40s Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

Depending on your budget I would think a MK5 would be quite expensive to buy these days if you could get one. I would have thought it would be easier and cheaper to repair. From the deep recesses of my memory, and I could be wrong but I think the main housing is VW, the r@p are modified VW, the lim slip is Ford, surely gears, dog rings, spacers, bearings can't be that much of a problem to obtain, recondition or remake. Worn shift forks can be fairly easily built up. Damaged side plates or rear housing can't be difficult to repair. Input shaft was a one off I think and could be machined up from scratch. I would think there would have to be a heck of a lot wrong with the trans before considering throwing it away. Just my 2 cents worth.

Regards,
 
R

Russ Noble

GT40s Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

OK. I was also going to add check to see if any Mk8/9 bits will fit, or can be modified to fit. It all depends on your skill, contacts,and the way you go about things,otherwise it's cheque book racing which works fine for some!

Regards
 
J

Joe T

Re: Transaxles - hate to bring it up! Hewlands & Staffs

I saw this Mk9 on Ebay recently Link

He states it uses a MK5 Uprated gear set,

Cheers

Joe
 
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