Auto to Manual swap
Author
Discussion

pezjaybish

Original Poster:

4 posts

69 months

Monday 5th October 2020
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Is anybody aware of a company that would be willing to take on a vehicle and convert from automatic to manual. Subaru Exiga GT, tuned by STI.

stevieturbo

17,961 posts

270 months

Monday 5th October 2020
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Any Subaru specialist should be able to do it.....there are quite a few all over the world.

But is it really worth it ?

Really you'd want a 6 speed, and by time parts and labour etc are sorted, you could be well into £3-4k in UK money.
It could be done a little cheaper, just depends on what parts you can get second hand and their prices etc.
But good 6 speed gearboxes alone are in the £1500 range, you will need matching rear diff, possibly shafts, and various other items.

Subaru tend to be good at using similar parts across their models, so making stuff swap isn't too bad.

Zerosumgame

114 posts

63 months

Sunday 7th February 2021
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pezjaybish said:
Is anybody aware of a company that would be willing to take on a vehicle and convert from automatic to manual. Subaru Exiga GT, tuned by STI.
Pezjaybish - did you ever do this? How does the car drive on the autobox? Does it not suit the engine?

pezjaybish

Original Poster:

4 posts

69 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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I was enquiring as a back up plan whilst the vehicle was mid import in case I didn't get on with the autobox. Having come from a DSG box and not being particulaly sold on the whole automatic experience and feeling fairly detatched from the feel of the engine and gear changes I was sceptical.
However I have found that the 5eat box to be enjoyable to use and well suited to the EJ205, this is down to a few reasons.
Firstly the semi automatic mode does not kick down a gear under heavy acceleration (unlike DSG despite being in semi auto) and is more true to manual selection. Secondly I was pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of gear change for a 10 year old automatic vehicle.....The words "Automatic" always seems to conjour up those noises of old Mercs and Range Rovers in my mind and the undesireable drone they used to make whilst going through the motions.
Lastly, the Exiga is less refined in terms of sound proofing and the ability to feel the revs is more prominent than my VRS was and therefor I feel far more in touch with how hard the engine is working, it's a more inclusive driving experience, I always drive in semi auto and use the flappy paddles as apposed to full auto.
I'm more than happy with it but do miss driving a manual car😃

Zerosumgame

114 posts

63 months

Tuesday 9th February 2021
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That is very interesting - what is the performance like? Have you looked into remaps/a bigger turbo etc? One final question is who insures you? I am looking at buying one and can't find any info on the cars in English anywhere - it doesn't seem like there is anything in the way of a community.

pezjaybish

Original Poster:

4 posts

69 months

Tuesday 9th February 2021
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What is your email address? It may be easier to converse?
Or drop me one, perrybishop83@gmail.com