ryoung

You could eliminate the Torsen altogether and still not get the motor behind the front wheel.

The center of the front axle is in line with the shock tower, about 8" behind the motor (see pic). The Torsen T-1 is not much longer than that, but even if it was totally gone, the front differential and driveshafts would now be imbedded in the motor.

The old Saab 900 is the only front engine car with a front differential that I can recall being able to get the motor further back. Saab raised the motor and put a chain-driven transmission under it! Can you imagine Audi doing that?

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/17157/strutbar.jpg">
<img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/auto_transmission/A8newtrans.jpg">

D Clymer

The second generation Acura Legend had a longitudinal engine with a rear wheel drive style transmission that gave its output to a short driveshaft that in turn returned output to a seperate front differential beside the oil pan. I think this was more for looks than anything else. These cars still had 60/40 weight distribution, which is what you want anyway for front wheel drive.

The other reason Audi cannot move the engine further back with its current architecture is that the engine now sits within a few inches of the firewall. True, the new A6 has a bolt in aluminum firewall, but the high mounted steering rack still doesn't allow the engine to go much further back even with a reshaped firewall.

I think for now Audi will just continue to do detail engineering to lighten the front end and rely on the upcoming T3 reduce understeer.

Good discussion guys. It's always fun to learn from what other people have to contribute.

ryoung

I have no clue how the mid-engine AWD Lamborghini Murcielago gets power from the rear mounted transaxle forward, past the engine, to the front differential.

The layout is similar to this RWD Countach "kit" car. To convert this to AWD, I'd guess that you'd have to run the front drive shaft above the crankshaft and thru the V of the motor itself!

<img src="http://www.lambolounge.com/Building_Notes/Countach/KenImhoff/images/P1150035.jpg">