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| Joined: | 03-14-2005 |
| Location: | Atlanta, Georgia USA |
| Posts: | 406 |
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The story goes that Lotus did some engineering work for Toyota, and in exchange, they got to raid the Toyota parts bin (i.e. W58 trans and tail-lights for the Esprit).
The 5-speed you speak of went into the early Eclat/Elite and I'm attaching a pic of it. Lotus built this box and my understanding is that it was fairly prototypical. The extremely rare Elite 2.2 received the Getrag 265 5-speed used in the early BMW M3 (don't even think about it, the bellhousings are impossible to find).
The W58 was the most logical next step in 907/912 RWD applications. Despite the M3 connection, the Getrag 265 is not a very good box. For the complete story try http://www.metricmechanic.com; they build a much superior version of the 265 called "The Ultimate Transmission".
If I had $5,000.00 to spend, an Elite 2.2 bellhousing and an ultimate 265 would be my choice for a 2.2 powered JH. For less than 1/2 of that I've got a bullet-proof W58 that more than proved itself in competition.
Attachment: Elite.Eclat.5sp.jpg (Downloaded 162 times)