ZZPerformance was the first to break an output shaft. Our 97 M90 powered GTP broke an output shaft in 2003. At the time it was a high 11 sec car running low 1.7 60' times. Luckily the output shaft breakage did not cause any internal damage and could be replaced with the transmission still in the car. By analyzing the failure mode of the breakage we determined that it was not due to HP. Instead the breakage was cause by an unloading and sudden 'jerking' to the drive train while on the sticky track surface. This would be similar to doing a neutral drop, and we all know how bad that is!

 

Instead of addressing the problem by building a thicker shaft (increasing it's weight) and guessing at it's expected performance, ZZPerformance knew the proper way to design the shaft was through engineering something better and then testing it. Because the failure method was due to the shaft snapping under a brief torsional jolt and not from HP, designing the shaft "stronger" could actually make it weaker or cause other parts to fail in the driveline. If the shaft is hardened wrong or built too brittle it could cause the differential or drive axles to fail where it would normally absorb some of the 'jolt'.

 

The ZZPerformance output shaft is engineered to be superior in every way to anything currently available. It is made from Chrome Moly then cryogenically treated, followed by heat treating. Splines are machined rather than rolled for tighter tolerances. After the heat treating process the shafts are straightened and labeled with a certification tag verifying it's trueness. This combination of treatment and process gave us the performance characteristics needed for our particular application.

 

After all was said and done we broke a stock shaft and a ZZP shaft under a controlled environment to confirm that our shaft would indeed do what we needed it to do. The ZZP shaft has less deflection than stock giving better two wheel burnouts and reduced wheel hop. It will withstand more torque than stock for higher HP applications (although we don't feel this is much of an issue). It will twist up to 70 degrees more than stock before fracture.

 

ZZP output shafts are engineered so well that they come with a life time guarantee against breakage. The shaft can be replaced with the transmission still in the car, this means 1 hour install times!