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Hi Matt,
Seeing as you’ve posted this on the Spider forum, I guess that we’re not talking about a transaxle setup.
I can only speak about my brother’s experience with his V6 Spider project. Initially, his plans were to use the std Alfa gearbox, as here in Australia people were even fitting these behind the Holden V8’s at some stage (there was a local company that made a bellhousing for this purpose), but he did do research on alternatives as well, and he thought that the 5 speed Getrag 265 would be his preferred gearbox if he really wanted to get serious about big numbers.
However, part-way through the project, he started to have a chat with a local company that makes gearboxes, and he showed them the internals of the Spider ‘box. Their review of the internals had them compare it to a Nissan ‘box of similar construction which they knew would prematurely fail in anything above 210Nm of torque. Further discussions with Alfa specialists here in Oz (like Beninca’s) went along the lines of “Well, it should be okay, but…….” Not really confidence inspiring, huh?
With the V6 planned to have between 230~250Nm, he really wondered whether to pour another AUD$2.5~$3k into it for better / stronger gears (and still have a slow-shifting box, maybe even a noisier as well depending on the cut of the gears), or to bite the bullet once and for all and fork out for an inherently stronger, more refined box. Given that the costs would be about $500 more for the latter, he decided that the Getrag install would be his preferred option (do it once, then forget it).
I’d be really interested in the replies to this thread (I think that the hands on experience and opinions of either Richard Jemison or Max Banks would be invaluable here) but it might pay to share with the group what your projected HP / Torque requirements are so that others in the know can recommend certain upgrades and estimate the $$ involved. That way, you can make a more informed decision as to whether to upgrade / replace the trans.
Dino
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