Lotus 5 speed trans swap

[vwdmc16]

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?

[kleinporsche]

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.

[Steve C]

Hi

Im pretty sure they were Renault boxes in those cars.

Steve

[Bugat5speed]

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

[vwdmc16]

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

[1303C2/3]

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