Audi R10 (or other LMP or GT) cassette type gearbox

[chernaudi]

I've been watching some videos on YouTube about the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans (which I also watched live) and they did a gear cluster change on the #8 Audi in about 8 minutes (a bit longer if you add the normal servicing they did to the car). I had also read in a Car and Driver article on the R10 from earlier in 2006 that the R10 used a cassette type gearbox to combat the ACO's restrictions on quick change rear ends like what the R8 used.

Of course, I'm wondering how a cassette type assembly works, and namely, how one would work that doesn't require removal of the gearbox casing from the car. I know that on other cars the gearbox casing would have to be removed to access the transmission/diff gear clusters. But on the R10, they were able to change those parts with the gearbox in situ and still attached to the car.

And are there other examples of this on more recent LMP or GT cars?