rear engine automatic options

[Lance]

okay now that you are reading this, first and foremost thank you for any help. I have been researching this topic off and on for quite a bit of time and am frankly more confused now. The application if for an offroad, sandcar. The car in question is a rear engine, long travel, subaru powered piece. I have seen on the site that people have acknowledged that lack of cost effective options for this hobby/toy. The engine is a stock jdm 2.0 that is making 380hp to the wheels on E85. Recently we added over a 100hp had put us into a tough situation. The car has gone thru a few 091 transaxles, two because of horrible workmanship. The current one in the car is alive and well, but I am sure its on borrowed time. A new engine is being assembled, this one will be over 500hp. I come from an import drag racing background, and a surprised at the lack of knowledge in the sand community in small displacement/high hp setups. The gearing they recommend is just horrible. We know the 091 is a ticking time bomb, but where do we go? The Mendeola options start at 7k and thats for basically the same thing in a beffy case(bigger r&p), and we have been told it still will be weak. I have a hard time stepping up to a 21k trans that "will be much tougher". That's more than the damn car cost! I don't want to sound like a cheapskate(referring to another post), but for a toy thats just a bit much. Being of the jump in head first type, the wheels got to spinning. Wanting my wife to also be able to comfortably drive the car, as well as get the turbo spooled up, I thought auto. I found someone to build a highly modified vanagon 3 speed, but am not completely sold on that yet either. He said I might still have to get a custom R&P made to get the gearing low enough.
I am here because there is so much talent on this site, I am sure you might be able to help me out. What are some possible options?

 

[Jac Mac]

Short & easy answer... there are not any... unless you are prepared to sit down & really work out what you can build it out of for a low $$$ input on your donor parts & dont really put a value on the time you will need to put into it it to join up all the dots, it can be done on that basis.... I cant get over how you USA guys keep on building big HP motors & then wonder why nobody can make a transaxle that will take the power or fit in with what is left of your budget after spending most of it on the engine...sort of putting the cart in front of the horse so to speak..

 

[Jack Houpe]

I have JDM EJ20H in my Vanagon but only running 8 psi boost, I don't think any VW transaxle to hold up to that HP ever. The input shaft is about the size of your middle finger and will be the weak link for sure.

 

[Eric A.]

Porsche Tiptronic from the 911 cars. Probably the only thing that will come close to what you want at anything like a reasonable price.

 

[Lance]

Gearboxes aren't black magic, they just take good engineering to work. The sand transaxles are mostly the same thing in different packages. Good call on the Porsche 911, auto. That's my number in candidate right now. As for the 3 speed vanagon, they have already proven themselves to over 600 HP in off roads apps. Those are with about equal amounts of torque. I would rather lean on more speeds, then put the motor against the converter if that makes sense. Parts are more available as well, any reputable auto trans shop can fix it...