 The
gearbox is buried within the rear carbon substructure.
Traditionally
the gearbox is bolted to or cast integrally to the bellhousing with the
suspension then located off of pickups on the gearbox. But in
that installation method, all the accompanying suspension
loads are absorbed by the gearbox. But the Allard design team
decided to eliminate
the loads inputted into the gearbox as much as possible in order to
improve longevity,
an important feature for an endurance prototype. The drawback was
that the gearbox was exceedingly difficult to access, even for
relatively common tasks such as ratio changes. Gordon Friend comments, "First you remove the carbon top of the
gearbox monocoque. Then you undo the input shaft and disconnect the
alternator. Then you remove the bolts from the gearbox bobbins
holding the 'box in place in the monocoque. Then you
lift the gearbox out. But you can only do this at a somewhat awkward
angle and it wasn't like it was super light! Then with the
gearbox out of the car, you can change gears relatively easy, though you do need to
have a mount to put the 'box in in order to untorque it etc. Turn around time for a gear
change, 2 to 4 hours!" |
The packaging at the rear is extremely tight and compact. Unfortunately this made working on the car rather difficult.
The
spring dampers were located within the rear monocoque. Gordon
Friend indicates that, unlike working on the gearbox, changing springs
was actually rather straight forward and could be accomplished in about
20 minutes.