One of the companies we've been working with in Australia is ready to release their direct bolt-in T56 replacement. Aside from the benefit of sequential shifts, the tranny can also handle DOUBLE the torque rating of the T56. This will work in GTOs, F-bodies, and Vipers, and we will be working with the manufacturer to see if we can get it to work with the transaxle in the C5 as well. Here's some information about the unit:
Specs:
Torque rating: 800 ft/lbs. (constant load)
Gear Ratios: 1st- 2.692
2nd- 1.972
3rd- 1.466
4th- 1.195
5th- 1.000
6th- 0.842
All indirect gears are mounted on splines so that ratio changes can be made economically. 1st and 2nd gears have double cone syncromesh. Heat treated nickel chrome steel is used for all gears and the gear profiles are ground on a Reishauer machine after heat treatment. The selector forks are aluminum bronze alloy. The casings are cast LM25 aluminum alloy heat-treated to T6 specs. The clutch splines are normally 1 1/8x 26 24/48 DP x 30 degrees PA.

Operation:
The gear lever is pulled back for up changes and pushed forward for down changes. Neutral is selected from 1st gear position by moving the gear lever to the left and forward. Reverse is selected from the neutral postiion by pushing the gear lever forward. From the reverse gear postion, neutral is selected by pulling the gear lever back and 1st is selected by pulling the gear lever back again. This system eliminates neutral or reverse being accidentally selected when in the forward gear change pattern.

A cam shaft performs the gear change with hydraulically assisted cam followers to ensure low effort gear lever movements. The main shaft, input shaft and lay shaft are mounted on taper roller bearings straddling 3rd, 4th, 5th and constant mesh gears.

Preload is easily adjusted with spacers behind the front cover. First and second gears are in the rear housing with the extremities of the shafts supported by needle bearings.

Pricing is not finalized but don't expect this to be the next "everybody's got one" bolt-in. Rough estimates on intial pricing are in the $10,000 USD area, but should come down as production ramps up. Anyone planing on building a serious race vehicle with a T56 will benefit hugely from the addition on this gearbox assuming it meets class rules. We expect 9.0-9.2 second quarter mile f-bodies will finally be able to consistantly break into the 8.9 bearier from the flawless shifts this tranny will allow. Road-race and autocross vipers, f-bodies, and GTOs will be able to effortlessly click through gears, never missing a beat which will decrease lap times, decrease driver effort/fatigue, and increase consistency between laps.

For more information please contact me. Group Purchases will be seriously considered in order to bring down machining costs, shipping, etc.

 

$10k?!!? Wow, to be expected though I suppose. First of its kind and 800 ft/lbs!

Sweet man, it's gonna be great seeing something like this hitting the streets/tracks.

-Rippin

 

If you look at the competition out there for a manual that will hold 800 ft/lbs I believe that it will fit its place. As I said though, as sales go up, we'll be able to get the manufacturer to source out some of the work and the price will go down. I wouldn't expect anything under 7 or 8K though.

We will eventually be offering a high-end GTO package to compete with ultra-performance competition such as Ligenfelter and Calloway and this will be an option on that vehicle. While we are still working out the details of how we are going to market this package it will consist of a lot of upgrades.