I was wondering if anyone has changed the gearbox or gears etc in there Exige. What im after is to raise the speed in each gear, reason being i use the Exige a fair bit on the drag strips (i no its not built for that) so id like to finish a bit faster. my idea is not having to use 4th should save me some time so im looking for around 120-125 in 3rd. Any suggestions? i normally hit flat out in 3rd right near the end of the 1/4 mile so id rather miss that last gear change if you understand what im trying to say.
You could change the final drive on the car, they are available from Quaife. Or alternativly go for a straight cut dog box, the changes should get you 1/2 second in the quarter. Difficult boxes to drive and easy to break if you mess up to many downshifts by not blipping.
Check out the quaife website they have numerous gearbox options, well gearsets and a gear calculator programme so you can see where the final drives would put you.
I would suggest for my 2 cents worth, shorter gears as they would then drop back into the torque band, and not be revving near redline where power is long dropping off,
What sort of times are you running at the moment and what spec is your engine. I am busy helping the guy who bought my orange exige set his up for dragracing, he was blown away by the changes possible with the dog box, and his car currenly runs 11seconds at 202kph, without nitrous, asked me to help him get the car sorted for the gymkhana events they have.
Let me have some details and i will see what i can find out for you.
In your case Chris just fit a 3.9 final instead of the std 4.2. It will raise all the gears so 5th will be very long.
U can find these 3.9 from elise 111 boxes, easy to find a second hand one.
Nicolas
PS: I’ve an UCR box on my exige, would never change for another box
There’s a lot of drag from the aero at high speed. Not recommended for stability, but you tried removing the rear wing?
Ian
Whats a UCR box? where and how much are they? I haven’t tried taking the wing off, maybe worth a try. Quaife told me they dont sell just final drive gears? Does anyone know what sort of difference a 3.9 final drive will give me? Quaife said they do a replacement 3rd 4th and 5th gear for �500, ratios being 1.412, 1.100 and 0.909 but not knowing the standard ratios dont know what the difference is? My Exige is a 260bhp supercharged one. Whats the orange one then? I cant touch 11 seconds, maybe i just cant drive but at santa pod i got 13.01 @ 112mph. More speed needed somehow. What drag strip did you use to get that time?
On the quaife website you will find a link for their gear calcultor, which will let you work out all the gearing questions you have by inputing the ratios,
The UCR gearset is what the race cars had, longish first, then quite close to 5th topping out at 226kph at 7800, it really does help. I think what they are offering you are the replacement gears to make a elise gearbox the same as the std exige close ratio box.
2L turbo with 600 BHP, not kidding i have seen it on the dyno, should be down in the tens by next year, we want to win the fastest street car challenge series next year. The car belongs to the owner of one of our local dragstrips so it was at that strip, so officially timed. Incidently if i murder the clutch on pulloff i can get 13.5, so gearing is important. With the supercharger you could propably get away with a new final drive, but a ucr gearset would be first prize, from what i remember they come with a final drive of your choice.
Bought new laptop so all my files are on the old one, but i will put them on and do some gearing calcs for you
Would appreciate some calcs as i couldn’t work that Quaife gear calculator thing. Who do you get this UCR box off then and how much am i looking at? Im not so disheartened now then if he had 600bhp, thought i was doing something wrong for a minute then.
The UCR is a gearbox with closer ratios. U can get it from quaife as a gearkit and then keep your final or get a second hand elise one 3.9.
In your case if u simply change your final from 4.2 to 3.9 u will end with longer gears from 1st to 5th.
There is a thread with the speed calculated here
im getting lost in these figures now? is that saying if i get the UCR box id only get 94mph in 3rd instead of 105mph? Does the UCR box use the 3.9 ratio final drive then? If it does will that give me the same speeds as the UCR box if i just change the final drive? If thats right wouldn’t i be better off going for a higher ratio than the standard 4.2, or am i looking at this all wrong? Or will i be faster going slower in each gear but getting through them faster?
i just seem to be flat out in 1st and 2nd almost straight away so think doing more in these gears would benefit the supercharged car as its always on power after 4000 rpm.
Thanks for the help so far
I guess the coments from here are biased for the track, not the strip.
At the track you don’t need to get away quick, but need to be kept on the boil, therefore an Ultra Close Ratio box is better, at the strip, you need less shifts, this is why top fuel dragsters have only two gears, and a very complicated clutch, getting away quick is being able to slip the clutch in the correct way.
So, your use is the strip, I would suggest
-getting a better (stronger) clutch
-going for a higher final drive ratio and change less.
That’s what i sad, get a 3.9 from an elise (first series and not 111s) and it is done.
Then as Uldis says, upgrade the clutch.
Nicolas
Chris,
I have an original Elise g’box with the taller gearing/final drive, if your interested.
I don’t even want much for it
Tim.