Lotus 5 speed trans swap
 

Hey has anyone heard of of even thought of installing a lotus 5 speed transaxle as an alternative to the 901 or berg 5? at the classic car resto shop we got a lotus europa transaxle and I wondered if it could be used on a Vw with some mounting, axle, shifter, and clutch mods?

Any thoughts?:confused:

lot's of Lotus owners changed their gear boxes and engines in favor of renault Fuego 2l turbo. or gordini so i'm not sure own good it is.

Hi

Im pretty sure they were Renault boxes in those cars.

Steve

Hi,

in the Lotus Renault UN1 gearboxes were installed. These trannies stand lots of torque. They were often used for kitcars with huge V8-blocks and they were the ones that could stand them mostly.
The UN1 is a very nice gearbox, but it´s housing is very big (much bigger than a 915) There´s yet no bellousing existing for VW-use. Adapterplates were made to fit a T2 bellhousing, but then it´s even 20 mm longer.
If someone is really interested in installing such a gearbox into a Bug, then it means cutting out lots of the floorpan / frame.

I have some good of them here in my workshop and have already thought a lot about installing into Beetle, but haven´t yet had the time to do conversion parts for them.
But, the better option for a Beetle with lots of power is in my opinion the 915 gearbox. It costs about 30-40% more than the Renault, but it fits quite good into the Beetle and already stands upto 350 Nm.

Cheers Martin Bott Bug@5-Speed

yeah im talking about the Renault 365 box, but yeah the box would too much trouble to install oh well

I've studied alot about the UN1 gearbox (in modified form the Lotus Esprit g.box). There's one link which shows the UN1 installation in a T3 bus. http://www.stud.uni-saarland.de/~mam...-getriebe.html
Another one for the offroad guys. http://www.theoffroadshop.com.au/ser...earbox_ren.htm
İf I were to use a vw engine in a midengine setup (for eg. in a 550 spyder replica) or build a tubular frame buggy, I would go for the UN1 instead of a 914 box. The regular R 21 box with the 3.8 r&P has gear ratios very similar to a Berg 5. However as Mr. Bott stated the fitment into a beetle chassis can only be accomplished with extensive cutting of the frame horns and rear torsion housing. A 915 box is definately a better option for the bug.
Cheers