The idea was to make a automatic paddle shift transaxle that could handle a 1000 hp easy. And have less parasitic loss than a conventional transaxle. By running the differential at the end of the trans housing and installing a belt system we can mount the engine anywhere we want to achieve the best balance and move the axle stubs to the optimum location. Also the gearing is a snap to change.

Let's talk some about an affordable transaxle. I understand price of materials. I understand expense of R&D. I understand value-added services, ie, engineering, consulting, etc. I understand making a profit. But can you please explain to me how a sports-car gearbox costs MORE than many VEHICLES? There isn't enough steel or aluminum or electronic circuits controlling them to make them that expensive. There isn't enough MACHINING time in the components to make them that expensive. I have ordered and replaced many transmissions for 18-wheelers...in fact, for what one GearFox unit costs, I could have a Caterpillar 6-cylinder diesel engine overhauled with all new wear parts almost TWICE. That's including parts & labor. And factory labor at Caterpillar Machinery is $95 per hour.

So, why is it so expensive to purchase a good unit? You've already done the hard part...the engineering and spec'ing of materials. You've got the drawings done. You either have the machinery or the partners to machine your components. Justify to me the EXPENSE of a single gearbox. One gearbox that you have so lovingly and expertly created, costs more to purchase than my daily driver (!) cost to purchase. We're not talking F1 trickery here. We're not talking aerospace or even space-shuttle components. We're talking about: a) CASE b) shafts c) gears d)forks e)synchros or engagement dogs f)bearings g)shift rods h)ring & pinion. That's it folks, that's all that's in a transaxle. Why can I buy a bulletproof six speed manual transmission and bulletproof rear axle for my drag Mustang for 1/3 the price that a GearFox transaxle sells for? My Tranzilla T56 cost LESS than a junkyard Getrag transaxle (Porsche). It takes 1200 ft.lbs. of torque on a drag launch! 9310 steel gears and shafts. My 9 inch housing runs 9310 ring and pinion. 9310 steel is a premium aerospace steel used to make the gears and shafts for helicopter turbine gearboxes. It's shockproof, it's strong, it has tensile strength out the yang, it costs 1.5-3X as much as 4340....and still, with a stock case full of these components, it costs $6000 ready to run. I'm positively baffled why it costs so damn much to manufacture and sell a transaxle. It seems to me that everyone in the transaxle supply chain wants to make their maximum bucks up front and to hell with the end consumer.

So, please Wanni, explain to myself and everyone listening, why all the transaxle manufacturers want to bend us over, remove our wallets, and our pride along with it, when all WE want to do is complete what should be a simple business transaction. Seems to me, everyone should be happy if we could all just do what needs to be done!

Very easy to calculate, my friend.
We start from a white sheet and we design the whole transmission after having made the research for purchasing some components.
This costs about $500,000 Euro
We make some tooling for casting and machining and this costs about $300,000 €
We prepare the plants for assembling and this costs about $200,000 €
We produce 10 prototypes for testing and this costs about $300,000 €
We do some tests and for that we shall buy a test rig for not stressed tests, this costs about $200,000 €. For the tests under load we do rent some facilities and this will cost about $300,000 €. We shall make some functional tests in the car and this will cost about $300,000 € for track renting, driver and engineers salary, gas, tires, and…and…and…
We have reached an investment of about 2 million Euros.
In order to sell some units the price shall be affordable. For that we decide to have a break point after 400 units which adds $5,000 € per unit. Unfortunately on the first 100 units there is no profit due to the high percentage of warranty claims. This moves the break point to 500 units sold. But when the break point is reached, the product is lod and needs some more investments, but let us to not considere this stage and let us stop our evaluation on the 500 units.
Another parameter which shall be well known is that due to the torque capability, and due to the price, this product fits only in cars sold for more then $500,000 €uros. How many people worldwide any year can afford such a purchase??? Probably 1,500. More then 1,000 will buy big branded cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini etc….who are using their own transmissions. only 250 or 300 are left for buying the product of our clients. The sector of business is extremely dangerous because plenty of our clients are bankrupt quiet easly and none of them can secure an order covering 2 years of production. This means that my production lots will be too small for becoming inexpensive. Of course why shall I take the risk to pay for lots of 500 just for the pleasure to fill my store.
Now the final calculation. In this way:
The industrial cost of 1 unit is about $8,500 €
The company running costs are about $2,000 € per unit
The return of investment is $5,000 €uros
And I stop my list here.
This means that until I'v sold transmission #500, I am wasting money.
It is now 5 years that I am doing the business and I have reached more or less 300 units. Actually we do sell about 110-130 units a year and this means that I have still to produce for 18 months before I make profit.
From that start to make some money, if the product does not become obsolete before.
If you think that some adventurers are starting to be concurrent, I let you imagine the conclusions of this story.
Regards
Wanni

At the beginning, nothing, ******* works as you have planed.
You shall throw away a lot of expensive parts and replace them with other more expensive.
The testing made by a reality like mine, is insufficient to garranty to match all the conditions. For example, who was thinking that for air shipping a gasket problem would occur??? - 52°C in the luggage room of a plane were not considered. And this is a stupid cause of troubles.
On the bench only safety tests has been made on a "RODEO" test rig simulating dynamicly accelerations, decelerations and cornerings. The transmission was full of plexiglass windows, in order to see internally what happens and a stroboscopic lamp was used to stop in movement all the gears one by one. After being sure of having a correct lubrication in any conditions we wend in a vehicle.
All the testing made, was concentrated on safety, confort and functionality purposes, made by a top and very expensive professional test driver.
- I rented a Pagani Zonda where I installed the proto unit -
1) Functional shifting tests with measurments. It toke 4 months to reach a good level of shifting quality.
2) Endurance test start. We assumed that 30.000 kms hardly made by a professional test driver were sufficient to feel confortable in starting a preserie production.
3) 30.000 kms made in this way: 5% in the city traffic – 25% on mountain roads – 30% on extra urban roads – 20% on the motorway and the final 20% on the Nardò test track at high speed –
After some cooling accessories adjustments, we could start to push hardly on the gas pedal.
An AMG V12 7,1 L a bit tuned was used – 580 HP and 750 Nm – Michelin Pilot Sport 335/35- 18 were in charge to transfer the torque through a 1,1 as adherence coefficient.
You can not imagine the amount of petrol and rear tires has been used, as well as 2 clutches.
This was made all in August 2000.
4) At the end of the endurance test, we decide to do a misuse test as well, while we had 3 more days paid for the track facilities. We installed a set of slick tires and we did all the worse actions against a gearbox on the dynamic track. About 1.000 Km more of tortures.

What do you think??? I was sure about a full success………..

The first 2 lots of pre-serie have been a bath of blood. Nobody was considering the change of production process, from accurate prototyping to standard production.
75% of cases leaking, 90% of final drives singing like Pavarotti, 90% of shifting quality problems, and so on without mentioning the wrong set up of the LSD. At the beginning we were using a ZF LSD with clutches. Too aggressive and dangerous. The car was oversteering in parking. Move to a TORQUE BIASING unit….successful, but throw away 50 crown wheels.
Overheating problems due to the different applications……rear cover re-design in order to allow an oil circulation through a cooler….successful………but the winter arrived.
Impossibility to shift while the lubricant is cold due to an extremely high pressure generated by the pump….add an over-pressure cutter…..successful….but throw away 50 rear covers.
Summer again and some clients are burning everything…..for not using the correct size of piping, they were generating a too high back pressure and the over-pressure valve was always open. The oil was never reaching the end of the shafts…….drill an internal by pass in order to avoid high back pressures…successful.
And so on….I have mentioned only some of the things that they MUST occur according to the LAW OF MURPHY….because believe me, he is always sitting next to you.

I hope this will clarify more your curiosities.
Regards
Wanni