ajmacdon wrote:
Having a car to put a sequential in was one of the main reasons I built my Stalker to begin with. Only for the driving experience, I couldn't really care less about performance metrics. It's one of those things, either you want one or you don't, hard to explain other than just the ear to ear grin when you rip gears with no clutch and spark cut upshifts.
They clunk, have lash, make rock crushing noises at idle, make screaming gear noise even if you get helical gears and are generally a PITA. If all of that isn't charming to you definitely don't get one. I put 1500 miles on my car in just a few months and love every second of it, not trying to discourage anyone, just don't expect a Lexus.
SO, I started off thinking a $10k trans was out of the question but over a couple years concluded you just have to pay to play. I have a fair number of motorsports connections and just couldn't put together a deal on a trans that fit in these cars and wasn't totally trashed already.
I happened to be in the UK when they voted to brexit and caught a 30% discount in one of the pound to dollar low points and bit the bullet. Bought a Quaife 60G with BMW bellhousing.
I'm telling you, this trans makes the car. It's otherwise a mild mannered car, rides pretty well, tractable torque curve, sounds mellow. Then you rip off a few gears, so GOOD!
I put a guibo in the driveshaft, kept my diff mounted in bushings, and use a sprung clutch. All of this makes the clunks bearable, don't skimp on these areas!!! The car is going to clunk on every coast-drive transition, you *need* to make that manageable.
Check out these suppliers, they were on my competitive list with Quaife. I chose Quaife based on them having a BMW configured option and helical gears available. All of these companies were competitive on price. Also plenty of other options that aren't cost competitive, such as X-Trac.
Elite - seemed like the best value out there, not a lot of reliability info and they seem more competitive in transaxles than in transmissions.
HGT - wow, a LOT of product for your money. Good tq numbers, would be great behind a V8. Didn't have helical gears available when I last looked.
Quaife - These are in a lot of Caterhams. Generally good reliability reputation for a motorsports product but horrible customer service apparently. I kind of agree so far, it didn't fit my engine exactly and it became clear it was on me to figure out spacers, etc. Love the trans, though. Helical is needed, it's loud even with these gears. Reverse gear is straight cut and shows you what that would sound like and it's pretty out of control.
Sadev - hard to get much info if you're not in Europe. Seemed like some good possibilities but the price was very volatile with what options you would need, shipping, etc. and that was hard to figure out without putting a real order together.
Alex
For what it's worth I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. The straight gear whines and the clunks are all major chapters of the driving theater/show entertainment. When I shift into 6th (1:1 direct drive, "quiet gear") I dread the day I'll ever have to take the sequential out and put the regular 5 speed back in, even if temporarily.
With that said, my personal understanding is that the Sadev unit is a much better unit that the Quaife.
Sincerely Quaife T9 Sierra 6 speed owner.
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. Who knows, that may satisfy my performance lust as is.
