Tony Smith wrote:I'm a bit concerned about the transmission now though. I reckon 350 ft/lbs is going to be the realistic limit for my A610 clutch and the UN1 'box. I don't think a standard GTA clutch is going to hold that sort of torque for long at all.
I did quite a bit of research on the gearboxes before having mine built.
5th is the weakest link on the GTA turbos and Esprits. The popular upgrade is to drop 5th to the same ratio as an Atmo and DeLorean. The next weakest link is the input coupler and there's a DeLorean vendor in the US who's made some sooopa doopa strong couplers for the guys out there who keps breaking them with their small block chevvy conversions. The clutch they've been using is a centreforce kit which turned out to be a re-badged Valeo pack. The next weakest point is the driveshaft ouputs, but you have to get to over 450hp to start worrying about them. 300hp is the limit beyond which you need to start worrying about 5th, 350 for the input coupler.
If anyone needs gearbox work, give us a shout, we've got enough donor boxes to create anything you desire. I've had a DeLorean box built from a donor Renault 30 (3.89:1 final), final drive flipped, and strengthened input coupler for my turbo engine (when I get around to it!).
Rememer also that you guys have smaller back wheels than the DeLorean so the chances are that you can put more through them before experiencing probs.
As 5th is the obvious weak part, the easiest solution would be to give the ECU an input to tell it it's in 5th, then limit the boost - although this will drop the top speed fractionally