List: Cars whose engine and transmission are not bolted together

Nowadays, cars usually have their engine bolted to transmission together directly, because it is easy to implement and saves costs. For some sports cars which seek to have a better weight distribution, the engine and transmission are located in different section of the car body, therefore requires an extra solid torque tube to connect them. This is an exotic design, for example, the below image shows the LFA’s torque tube.

LexusLFATorqueCube

But please do not misunderstand that this is a requirement for a good sports car. For some of them, especially the engine is in the rear, they usually have the transaxle connected to the engine directly, because there is no need to put the transaxle in other places, for rear-engine RWD cars. Examples are the Lamborghini Countach, Diablo, Murcielago, Aventador, and Bugatti Veyron.

Some sports cars, their transmission and rear differential are already integrated into the engine’s crankshaft housing; they become part of the engine. From my point of view, this design is even more exotic than using a torque tube to connect the engine and transmission. This is because it means this powertrain is model specific, the packaging is fixed, you cannot reuse them in other different models. Examples are Ferrari with the F12 engine (365 GT4 BB, 512/512i BB, Testarossa, 512 TR, F512 M).

Below is a list of cars which has the engine and transmission not bolted together (not counting small workshop project cars), produced after 2000:

Alfa Romeo 8C series
Aston Martin V/H platform (DB9, DBS, V8/V12 Vantage, Rapide, new Vanquish etc.)
Aston Martin One-77
Chevrolet Corvette C5, C6, C7
Ferrari California, 456, 550/575M, 612, 599, FF, F12 Berlinetta
Lexus LFA
Maserati Coupe
Maserati Spyder
Maserati Quattroporte 5th generation AMTversion
Maserati GranTurismo/GranCabrio  AMT version
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (not including the Electric Drive)
Nissan R35 GT-R

Below are the historical list:

1898–1910 De Dion Bouton
1914–1939 Stutz Bearcat
1929–1936 Bugatti Type 46
1934–1944 Škoda Popular
1950–1958 Lancia Aurelia
1951–1956 Pegaso Z-102
1957–1970 Lancia Flaminia
1961–1963 Pontiac Tempest
1964–1968 Ferrari 275
1963–1968 Ferrari 330
1968–1973 Ferrari Daytona
1972–1987 Alfa Romeo Alfetta
1974–1987 Alfa Romeo GTV/Alfa Romeo GTV6
1976–1988 Porsche 924
1976–1991 Volvo 300 series
1977–1985 Alfa Romeo Giulietta
1978–1995 Porsche 928
1982–1995 Porsche 944 and Porsche 968
1984–1987 Alfa Romeo 90
1985–1992 Alfa Romeo 75
1989–1991 Alfa Romeo SZ
1997–1999 Panoz Esperante GTR-1
1997–2002 Plymouth Prowler
1998–2005 Shelby Series 1
2003–2006 Chevrolet SSR
2004–2009 Cadillac XLR

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