Yeah, I do live in the US. I didn't realize that the M59 was a euro only trans but after a little research, I see that the M59 seems to be the same as an M56 except with the addition of a viscous coupling on the diff. I'm not a fan of viscous units - they're good on road cars and they're very good for what they do, but the hardcore race applications never seem to use them.

It looks like a late-model (post 2001) M56 would be a good starting point. Adding in a Quaiffe torsen LSD would make it a strong, low-$ street/rally box. My target for the project would be a 450-500 WHP output, and I think the M56 should withstand the abuse in a light-weight project car and have a reasonable life expectancy.

Thanks for the tips on the flywheel. I'll have to do more research in that area. I'm sure that there are also several lightweight flywheels and clutch sets in the aftermarket that will work well too.

The M66, as far as I can tell, is an AWD trans. I'd be only interested in 2WD. Since this would be going into a 1st gen Focus, it wouldn't drop into the engine bay like it would on the 2nd gen Focus that we never got here in the US. The only iteration of that chassis we saw here was found in the Mazda 3 and the Volvo C30. My plan for my 1st gen Focus is to build a tube-frame mid-engine structure with fully fabricated suspension and tie this into the lightened body structure. The challenge will certainly be to design proper geometry at the rear and keep it from getting too wide. The B5234 with the trans is pretty big compared to most transverse fours. It's going to be a long-term hobby project, so there will be lots of fun designing, researching, parts collecting, planning, and building & fab.

Steve