RE: Lotus Esprit V8 Turbo: PH Carpool

RE: Lotus Esprit V8 Turbo: PH Carpool

Author
Discussion

swisstoni

16,997 posts

279 months

Saturday 31st January 2015
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Did anyone ever beef up the gearbox? Sounds like they could be amazing with the engine tuned to its potential.

The Pits

4,289 posts

240 months

Saturday 31st January 2015
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The GT race teams fitted beefy gearboxes (Hewland and from memory) and were comfortably getting 550bhp out of them but I don't know of anyone who went to that expense for a road car. There have been a number of home made chargecoolers fitted with around 400bhp but most kept the same gearbox.

A nice money pit project for someone with no chance of any return! Any lottery winners fancy giving it a go?

Oilchange

8,462 posts

260 months

Saturday 31st January 2015
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I race mine on the original gearbox and if you 'know' it and are sympathetic you can change without smashing the synchros but get it wrong and crunch!
I hope to fit an LSD sometime but have also considered the uprated shaft and 1st/2nd kit from GTO
http://www.gtoracing.co.uk/index.php?option=com_co...
bit its expensive

Spoke to the chap and he races the UN1 with more torque through it and tougher clutches/slicks and he says they're capable of handling lots but needs to be built for it, ie with the kit
He said on mine a new rally clutch (low inertia twin plate one for a 4 pot) and new flywheel would stop me losing power from a slippy clutch but again, lots of money, maybe not as much as a Hewland though!