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Reply to "New CMC Speedster project"

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Adrian, Al and I have never met. Like many others, he's been duped by an aggressive PR campaign mounted by my staff. You would probably be more than underwhelmed by my physical presence.

Not so, a five-speed, though. It's just the ticket for an underpowered Speedster. Maybe more than your MG, the Speedster with basic VW 1600 'power' suffers from the big gaps in gearing that are also present in a stock VW four-speed.

There are many threads in the archives about gearing and how to get around these deficiencies, including long discussions of the five-speed.

The main problem is that you can't just go to the five-speed store and buy one. No one makes them as a finished piece. There are a few routes to getting there, including a conversion kit for a VW four-speed, but they all involve gathering up rare or unobtainium parts from various sources and then finding a guru to build you the finished transaxle. Then, there are modifications that must be made to the car just to mount them and to get them to fit. The whole process usually takes a year or so, costs many dollars, and will shorten your lifespan by more than that. You might well end up in therapy. Most rational people don't bother.

One thing to remember is that the more low-end torque you have, the less you need a five-speed. I have a mild two-liter (about 120 estimated hp) which benefits mightily from five forward gears. But with 150 hp or more, four carefully chosen gears and the right r&p might do you. Several million words have been written here about that.

If you're starting from scratch on a project that will probably take at least a year of your life, I'd give serious thought to acquiring more motive power than that 1776. We all start out thinking that this iconic sports car left the factory with only 70 hp, so how much power do we really need? In short, a lot more. We forget that roads and traffic were worlds different in 1955. To survive in today's conditions, you just need more.

Even with my two-liter and a five-speed, I still stay off the freeway when possible. A low, open car (actually very low and very open) is just not happy in a world of 500 hp mastodons, where to the left and right of you are nothing but menacing, spinning wheel covers and lug nuts.

My car will attain an honest 90 mph, maybe more, and would probably cruise all day at 75 mph, but in quiet moments of self exploration, when I'm being truly honest with my inner soul, I know that it's happiest at 60 mph on a twisty, two-lane mountain road, like the ones in Bavaria it was originally designed to own.

Good luck with the project. I think you'll discover, if you haven't already, that it's not about the car, it's about the journey.

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Last edited by Sacto Mitch
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