Vauxhall engine with which 'box?

[Mr Noble]

Did most of the 2.0L VX engines come with a 5 speeder or are there 6 speeders too?


Does the same count for this engine as does for the 1.8 K's? (6 sp is better for track/fast road)



Thanky again.

G

[rubystone]

Very few non JPE cars had the 6 speed 'box. My HPC did and in some ways was wasted on the road and on track. The car had a chunk of torque wich rendered 3rd and 4th pretty meaningless on the road..not to mention handicapping top speed. On track I was a gear up on my SLR.

I have driven 2 VXs with the Quaife 'box - very noisy in all but 4th gear on the road...probably great on track though...

[snapper seven]

I would say that if you have a standard VX HPC (like me!)a six speed box is pointless. As Rubystone says (where were you last night by the way?) the VX has soo much torque that you don't need to buzz the engine to get the best from it.

The six speed was designed to extract the best from the revvy k series engines so would say, as a few have done, only stick a 6 in if you have a heavily modified VX where your power band is much higher up the rev range.

The most frustrating thing about the standard box is the stupidly short first gear. If you want the best box for a VX then send your 5 speed to someone like BGH and get them to put a long 1st and 2nd in, this, so I am told, transforms the car and makes it far more exploitable.

[F355GTS]

Greg

I run a 2.0 VX Caterham, originally it came with a 5 Speed Quaife, as Mark says very noisy except 4th but the long 1st was amazing, it would do 0 - 60 without a gear change!, the Car originally had 218BHP and worked well, Engine was upgraded to 235BHP and it still worked OK but when we went a bit further (270BHP) it seemed to struggle, particularly on fast circuits where finding the right gear was concerned, ie exiting the Becketts complex at Silverstone, 3rd was too short, 4th appeared too long. I changed to a 6 Speed and longer Diff and the Car is now much better, it's easy to find the right gear and I certainly don't feel I'm swapping cogs all the time. I run 2 engines in the car now, 251BHP and 274BHP, both with around 183lb/ft torque and they both seem to work well with the 6 Speed.

[CanAm]

F355GTS said:

I run 2 engines in the car now, 251BHP and 274BHP, both with around 183lb/ft torque and they both seem to work well with the 6 Speed.

Mark, I know you're handy with a spanner, but that's a damned good trick. (I'll get my coat)
Alan

[Mr Noble]

Thanks guys, especially F355GTS Sir.


I've just found another VX engined car for a good price.

I'm guessing that for me, coming from a 400 bhp Noble that I track a bit, the 2.0L VX engined car with 200 bhp and 180+ lb ft will give me the most grin per £.

Would you agree with this or suggest a different configeration for track work and fun sunnyday blasts?

Greg

[rubystone]

Mr Noble said:

Thanks guys, especially F355GTS Sir.


I've just found another VX engined car for a good price.

I'm guessing that for me, coming from a 400 bhp Noble that I track a bit, the 2.0L VX engined car with 200 bhp and 180+ lb ft will give me the most grin per £.

Would you agree with this or suggest a different configeration for track work and fun sunnyday blasts?

Greg

If it really has 200 bhp....if not on DTH injection, I'd say it has to be on Weber 48s to get that power....

The VX engined cars need careful setting up - and are greatly helped with widetrack suspension and (IMHO) LSD. The engine is heavier than a K and thus they do tend to understeer more than a K. With careful setting up, my car was very good on-track - not as good as my SLR, but close.

The characteristics of the VX - torquey and no need to rev to red-line, are totally different to those of the K and you need to decide whether you want a revvy "racecar" type power delivery, or a relaxed torquey delivery.

I'd suggest you try to drive an R300 before committing to that VX. They give about the same bhp per tonne. If you really want to see what a large power K can do, drive an R400 or Superlight R...or R500.

There's (what looks like) an ex race VX on ebay at the moment that looks reasonable value. If you can buy it for £9k, probably a good buy - it has been on there before...

Also ensure you fit 13 inch wheels too....

[finmac]

My last Caterham was a 245BHP VX with the 6 speed box, given my location (200 odd miles to the nearest track)I tend to use my cars mostly on the road.

As a road car it was pretty balistic (mates 993tt felt heavy and slow by comparison) but the box was pretty hopeless with the ratios so close and so much torque I didnt need half the gears available! Also cruising at 80 I was pulling well over 4000 rpm so that was pretty tiring after a while.

I had actually toyed with swopping the 6 speeder for a 5 with better "road" ratios.