Sequential Gearbox

[Telegram Sam]

There is a man who lives near Galashiels who used to do Vauxhall sequential gearbox conversions for the rally people etc but has stopped for the present at least. Does anyone know of anyone else?

[Telegram Sam]

The man's name is Bill Falconer (to avoid confusion)

[humbucker]

Elite Racing Transmissions offer a twin-gear dog-engagement set (designed for Autocross use etc) for an F16/F20 gearbox. £900:

http://www.eliteracingtransmissions.com ... -gear-kit/

Quaife make one too. The company also makes a five-speed version:

https://shop.quaife.co.uk/vauxhall-opel ... fe-gearkit

Are you planning to race your SRi?

[humbucker]

I'm pretty sure that Quaife do a six-speed sequential box too.

Also, manufacturers like Pfitzner offer mega-gearkits. How deep are your pockets?

[Telegram Sam]

No, though it was a dotty idea sparked off by watching "your" competition Corsa video: Whether £££'s permitting it would be at all feasible to have a sequential gearbox (conversion) for road use. My Cav has had so many mods by now that a little thing like this would hardly be noticed ... Tks for your leads.

[Telegram Sam]

I'm pretty sure that Quaife do a six-speed sequential box too.

Also, manufacturers like Pfitzner offer mega-gearkits. How deep are your pockets?

This is obviously it: There comes a point where the £££'s just wouldn't be worth it. I was wondering if there was perhaps an entry-level thing that I could "live with"!

[humbucker]

£1200

http://billfalconer.webs.com/sequentialgearshifter.htm

[humbucker]

You don't need a sequential gearbox unless you're planning to race your car in a motorsport environment.

[humbucker]

You would be better off servicing your car's gearbox and buying a short shifter. B&M made them for the MK3 Cavalier / Vauxhall gearboxes, although they are very rare. You could always get a Mk3 (or is it Mk4?) Astra gearstick and use that as an economy short-shifter; I believe the Astra's stick is much shorter than that found on the Cavalier.

[Telegram Sam]

"http://billfalconer.webs.com/sequentialgearshifter.htm"

Bill Falconer is the man near Galashiels that I referred to above who has (temporarily?) suspended operations but who I might visit the next time I'm travelling up the A68

"You don't need a sequential gearbox unless you're planning to race your car in a motorsport environment"

In this topsy environment when was "need" the critical issue?!

[humbucker]

"You don't need a sequential gearbox unless you're planning to race your car in a motorsport environment"

In this topsy environment when was "need" the critical issue?!

I like the cut of your jib.

I like the idea of you fitting a dog engagement gearset to your SRi and then getting a sequential shifter for it.

You should do it. By my reckoning, circa £2k would see you with a twin-speed gearbox and sequential shifter from Bill. This would make for the most excellent shopping trolley

[Telegram Sam]

Should I put an ad in Parts Wanted?!!

S'pose that from time to time a rally car gets written off but the gearbox survives ..

What would that do to my insurance agreed value?

[Telegram Sam]

I like the idea of you fitting a dog engagement gearset to your SRi and then getting a sequential shifter for it.
You should do it. By my reckoning, circa £2k would see you with a twin-speed gearbox and sequential shifter from Bill. This would make for the most excellent shopping trolley

I'm learning bit by bit. Seems that the "dog" variant comes with straight cut gears which are more efficient technically but make quite a row. Changing down is a bit of an art form and the whole unit is apparently not recommended for road use if that includes the Newcastle Western Bypass.

On the other hand there is also a variant that converts / attaches to the standard F16 or whatever gearbox, not so efficient technically but possibly more tractable and a lot less noisy.

No doubt there is more to it than that. I'm sure the folk at Tesco would be most impressed with the poor man's Porsche [BMW?] Sportmatic or whatever the name is.

[Telegram Sam]

After visiting Bill Falconer (Earlston) I've come to the painful but obvious conclusion that sequential gearboxes are just not compatible with road use. End of dream. As an alternative ..

Not much of an update to be honest but ive been mainly driving it shock horror.
What did come evident latley was that the current clutch has about had it and slips on boost over about 5psi , but suppose its done well for 10 years plus its been on the car. This will be replaced over winter with a Courtney sport fast road clutch and a light weight flywheel.

Can some kind gent let me know what a Courtney ... is all about? A half-way house towards a sequential??? (I've got the light weight flywheel, not that I can notice much difference except when doing 15 mph on the Newcastle Bypass)

[humbucker]

A performance clutch. Courtenay Sport sell them, although you're better off going to a manufaturer (Courtenay are a re-seller of such parts). Somewhere like CG Motorsport would be your best bet, but again, the kind of clutch you want depends on the driving environment, driver behaviour and engine performance. You might actually end up sacrificing performance if you fit parts designed to cope with a much bigger power output than your car can currently produce.

[humbucker]

Take your pick:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw= ... r&_sacat=0

[humbucker]

Iain,

Going by the tone of your recent posts - and your desire to equip your SRi with top-notch performance parts - I wonder if you have considered an engine swap? You could gain a significant amount of performance from just swapping your SRi's engine and gearbox, and it needn't break the bank. You could stick with Vauxhall nuts and bolts and fit a C20LET (as found in the Cavalier Turbo, 204bhp standard), or go for a more economical Saab B204R swap (a third of the cost of a LET, slightly less stock power). Both engines have pros and cons, but these are just two obvious routes to big power - similar starting points, but both engines have bags of potential with a well-considered series of modifications.

[Telegram Sam]

Interesting.
Compatible with sporty road use, or just for tracks / competition?
What difference would I notice? Faster gear changes?
Would "CG Motorsport Stage 2 Clutch Kit for Vauxhall Cavalier - 1988 2.0i - 4x4 & SRi -
£197.40
+ £11.75 postage"
work with my 90/91 20 SEH?
Or is the main difference just to cope with extra power??

Re engine swap, I'm not starting from a green field and am rather attached to the existing motor after just 231 K miles! Apart from which I spent a lot getting it rebuilt and upgraded by Automark @ Stokesley and now it isn't exactly a slouch (Envoy Gary is meant to be confirming this sometime if you don't believe me ). You've got to draw the line somewhere (I did that when the question of a shell swap came up) otherwise the rational thing would be to put the car on eBay as is, take a huge loss, and buy something totally different. Apart from which I can argue to the insurance people that what I have is still tolerably standard whereas a LET would send them ballistic.

[Super89]

Upgrade the camshaft and fit a pair of weber 45s.

Its the same route that i am going down. You and me both have the Fast Road cams fitted.

I'm going for the ULTIMATE ROAD camshaft. It can not be used with the std injection system. Cheapest place for the full Weber 45 setup with everything i need is around £1200 and thats without the camshaft or rolling road time for setting up. I'm sure you could buy the weber setup alot cheaper but i want brand new parts.


Camshaft link.
http://www.pipercams.co.uk/pipercams/ww ... =A18BP285H

[Telegram Sam]

Pity I don't live near Congleton. Interesting but to me a bit confusing what you say.

What I've got is a Stage 1 modified road cam (possibly a Piper) which really is as lumpy as I'd want to go whilst Balfour Beattie is still frigging around with the Newcastle Bypass. In addition the motor has been rechipped and remapped and things and had a decent exhaust fitted. Not cheap either. So it doesn't hang about but it ain't a turbo or a V6.

I can't see the advantage of substituting one hi-lift cam for another if I don't intend to go in for competitions. And in my limited knowledge fuel injection is what replaced carburettors so installing carbs would be retro! [no doubt there is an explanation for this that escapes me]

That would have been the advantage of a seq gearbox had it been viable - increased "performance" without major mods to the engine - and I'm still scratching my head whether the CG "fast" road clutch might or might not be half a way to achieve this.

[Super89]

The clutch would be a waste of time and money. If you want more power and want to keep the 8v the best way is, wilder camshaft with Webers or throttle bodys. You could turbo it but your best starting off with the 20NE for that.

[Telegram Sam]

If you want more power and want to keep the 8v the best way is, wilder camshaft with Webers or throttle bodys.

I don't know what throttle bodys are but would not a wilder cam make it less roadworthy, more a track car?

[Super89]

Depends on how 'wild' you want to go.. Piper cams do full race camshafts from 3500‑8000RPM, You would need alot more internal engine mods to have one of them cams fitted.

[Telegram Sam]

That's why I'm not keen on doing anything radically different from what I've got now, and why a Vx semi-automatic gearbox that fell off the back of a lorry would be a very acceptable alternative.

[Super89]

You could always look out for a upgrade inlet.. They dont make much gain i dont think but it all helps..





They is a few more i think but cant find any pics