I'm still at the planning stage of my build, but I'm still undecided about the rear end configuration. Does anyone have a good idea of how much power you can put through a standard escort (english) live axle?

depends how much torque you will be putting through it and how much grip you have ... most rally cars upgrade to the the atlas axles as a minimum

Ok - useless answer time.

Let's assume an all up weight of 600kg if you're having a car engine. You will maybe have 250kg over the back wheels.
Let's also assume 250bhp and road tyres with a 195-205mm tread width.


what I'm building up to here is the chance of lighting up the rear tyres at very regular intervals. I did it lots in ye Olde XFlow engined car with approx. 125-130bhp.

So - the english axle will not actually be that highly stressed when you think about it. Because most of the grunt produced by the engine will leak away via rampant wheelspin.

My two bob's worth.

That would be my answer too, wheelspin will be a problem 1st, of course you can break it with abuse but that's true of everything, I ran a RV8 mated too an VW beetle box for years with a locked diff on grass, wheelspin saved the day.

ah the magic word ... locked diff

without that wheelspin will grenade the gears in the diff pretty quickly

Wheelspin can be pretty destructive if you end up with the rear wheels hopping as they spin, the shock loads will kill lots of things pretty quickly

Thanks for the quick responses guys. Rampant wheel spin is certainly something I do a lot of in my current kit car

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=40585

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Originally posted by Jon Ison
That would be my answer too, wheelspin will be a problem 1st, of course you can break it with abuse but that's true of everything, I ran a RV8 mated too an VW beetle box for years with a locked diff on grass, wheelspin saved the day.

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Know what you mean, used a Audi box on the same engine, (why I didnt use a Renault like every one else i don't know) and was forever breaking shafts, got an old pic of the gearbox stripped out in the middle of a field too, will dig it out,
I'm seem too remember 2nd gear is the prob on the F20 box, is that the one ?

quote:

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Originally posted by bilbo
I'm still at the planning stage of my build, but I'm still undecided about the rear end configuration. Does anyone have a good idea of how much power you can put through a standard escort (english) live axle?

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Thanks again for all your replies. Am I right in thinking , though, that an Atlas axle off a cortina/capri is a good 4" wider than the english? If so, is this something I can get away with on a book chassis, or would I have to go with one of the wider chassis designs? Or do I look for a 'Baby' atlas of an escort?

And sorry, another connected question. If I decided to go with a De-dion configuration instead, would I need to shorten the standard sierra driveshafts to fit a book chassis? (I'm guessing yes)

The Escort axle is well on the narrow side anyway --- use a Cortina axle if you want to narror track use Sierra wheels.

ISTR the Capri axle is about 2" narrower than the Cortina one, this is the one I'd use.

Marcus