Most transaxles do not have equal length CV shafts because the “diff†part is offset to one side or the other. On the VW, the diff is offset to the driver’s side. Turn the drivetrain 90° with the engine at the front and now you essentially have two passenger drop transfercase outputs (once the spiders are welded).
My understanding is that GM stuff is either offset to the center or the other side of the car, making it better suited to go in the rear with trans facing forward. Flipped diffs needed for that maybe? Honda spins the other way and avoids needing flipped diffs. Once I narrowed down front engine, the VW quickly seemed to me like the obvious choice so I did not research much further.
I will run the stock VW trans which will work well to attach driveshafts to because they use flanges rather than most other FWD stuff where the CV kinda “pops†in and subsequently can pop out pretty easily. Moose had that problem and the Neon buggy guy came up with a PTFE/flange captured contraption to make it work.
This is the VW trans. The output you see here will be the front output (and the rear is right behind it). The flange makes it much easier to mount a u joint yoke with a little creative machining.
There are pics of a lot of it in this thread. His IG handle is johns4whln, has some pics there too.
https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/2328786-neon-transaxle-buggy.html?amp=1I’m going to have a fun time building a two seater. This is looking from the back of the buggy at the “rear†transaxle output. I think I can make it work with a couple inches here and there and some creative floor panels.