A&Q about 350Z
Q:
Do mid engined sports cars have driveshafts or is it connected to the wheels like a FWD?
A:
I'm surprised no one answered this yet.
A:
A:
Hmmmm, Im trying to envisage an internal compustion engined car, that dosn't use a drive shaft to transfer power to the wheels.........
Its possible in theory.
A:
Technically, a mid engined car is one where the engine (center of gravity) sits between the front & rear axles. Mid-engine cars like the Ferrari 430, have the engine connected directly to the transaxle with no "driveshaft". Some cars that claim to be mid-engine use driveshafts to connect to the rear end or even a rear mounted transaxle. Of course, the whole ideas of mid engine is to distribute weight more evenly and lower the polar moment of inertia.
A:
Most mid engine cars have an engine connected directly to a transaxle, then transverse axle shafts coming directly out of the side of the transaxle... much like a FWD. I suppose there may be some that don't do it this way, but they are mostly like you describe.
A:
only way you can have a straight axle is with a drive shaft. Won't say its impossible (there's some hybrid cars I've seen that were like that, such as using motorcycle engines) but its pretty unlikely in most situations.
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An axle is technicaly a drive shaft, so its very hard to design a car with out at least one.
Infact you could even go simplify it right down and say a crankshaft where it exits the engine becomes a driveshaft. Although a very short one.
A:
by drive shaft, I meant a drive line. A shaft to go from the tranny output to the diff yoke with some type of angle capability through U-joints or what have you. There has to be some type of flexible connection, or the diff assembly can't move due to suspension travel, otherwise, you have to hinge the entire drive train to move with the rear axle, which would be a crap load of unsprung weight and it would cause for horrible suspension...besides being an engineering nightmare, trying to hinge that much weight.
A:
Yes!