It never ceases to fascinate, how a vehicle with a mid-engine gets the torque onto the front axle. You can see in figure 1, that the cardan-shaft to the front axle, by no means runs through the center. In this case, it's guided to the right, past the crankshaft.
A V8-engine is straight-mounted in front of the rear axle. There is in fact, still a little space in front of the engine, so that a V10 could even be used. The two axle-shafts, which lead into the axle drive, can be clearly seen. Behind it, of course also straight mounted, is the gearbox followed by the comparitively large exhaust system.
In figure 2 you can see the whole thing again, this time without the engine. Only the bell-housing is still shown. Then it goes on further to the axle-drive and to the gearbox. The extremely thin shaft, which takes up as little space as possible next to the crankshaft, is interesting.
In figure 3 we have an unrestricted view of the inside of the gearbox. Going out from the front shaft with the two shifting forks, is the input shaft. Judging by the size-ratios, the the gears must have the following distribution:
4 - 3 - 6 - 5 - 2 - 1 - R,
Whereby the shifting-sleeves for the 1st, 2nd- and reverse gear are arranged on the rear drive shaft.
The position of the gears and the diameter of the front and rear shaft show, it is a manual- and not a direct-shift gearbox. From the transmission output shaft the torque is then carried up to the rear axle, and down past the engine to the cardan-shaft, which is connected with the front axle. 04/11