I went to my first UCKK this week and people seemed really shocked when I told them that in Europe it is illegal to drive a Manual (stick) car unless you pass your driving test in a manual (stick) car. You can pass your test in an automatic, but then it is illegal to drive a stick and you can only ever drive an auto.

The hardest part of passing the test in Britain is mastering clutch control, hill starts and 3 point turns are the cornerstone of the test...without 3 months of beating on my instructors transmission in his crappy econobox I'm sure I wouldn't be prepared for a WRX box.....

Now I'm starting to wonder if this is where the WRX transmission gets such a bad rep?

 

haha, No. The WRX 5-speed was derived from the NA 5 speed box and just has never been able to handle torque well. The 5-speed failures are nearly always from broken gears, you may eat your syncros trying to find a gear, but you dont explode them

 

makes me happy i passed my driving test on a MT.

=D

 

Yes, I believe it's not only mis-use but the detuned US spec cars which force you to downshift to 1st in city driving.

Don't you miss the big red or green L letting you know you need to get around that [Fiesta, 106, Sierra Sapphire, Sunny, Micra, whatever] as soon as possible?

Gotta say though, if you went through UK driver training and then came here, you should already know what a major part of the problem is... I miss the motorways.

 

what freaks me out Jeremy is that I want the VF34 upgrade next, but hear of guys that get the upgrade, then blow their trannies (sorry shaun). I'm wondering if my 15 years experience with a manual tranny will prevent that, or whether an 05 tranny will hold 240whp without major problems, or just make a popping noise and leave me with a $3K bill?

 

you too?

 

compare to other countries, the driving test in the US is like a joke.....

 

well 3K is what Gruppe-s is selling 6-speeds for nowadays

 

+1

 

Some people have been running a VF34 with a stock tranny for thousands of miles with no problems...some people are breaking their trannies with the stock 175whp...it's all down to how you drive. The fact that you've been driving stick for 15 years is gonna help a lot.

 

I think breaking trannies has a lot to do with abuse. As long as you arent 6k clutch droping, downshifting without rev-matched, etc, you should be ok

 

Clark Turner, arguably the best subaru tuner in the continental united states, ran a STOCK 5MT (tranny AND clutch) while making 11 second passes w/ 420whp on an '02 bugeye. And when FP first started flanging their turbos for Subarus many people ran upper 300whp range w/ FP Greens on their stock trannies w/o breaking them.

Really in the end there's just no "exact" fact. People break trannies w/ stock 160whp power, while one guy I met in NY ran a 10.8, that's right 10 second pass, on a stock 5MT. Of course he had to get a rebuild every month or so.

So yeah... just mod and drive, as long as you have money in the bank for emergency. Besides it's good practice - you should always have savings anyways!



Of course Clark also vehemently argued that case flex was the killer of trannys and claimed his car held up b/c he tightened the case bolts every week, and case flex turned out to be debunked...

 

true, revmatching is your friend

 

I'm putting some cash aside for one of these.

 

True dat. I am a habitual rev matcher, double clutcher. Release the clutch smoothly and apply power. I beat the crap out of my car, when I drained the tranny for a fluid swap there was amost no metal on the mag drain plug.