Leno's Elan

[lance54]

Jay Leno says out with the Quaife Sequential Gearbox and in with a normal box and clutch.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=riUa51_VeWY

Still loves the all alloy 2.0L Twincam....

[USA64]

"Sometimes the old ways are best."
A normal box but a five speed.
I liked the comment at the end of the whole thing: "There are no ten-minute jobs!"

[lance54]

Amen to that.

My fathers admonition was..."you can take the time to do it right or take the time to do it twice".

[2cams70]

Sense at last. A sequential box in a car like that is an abomination. Actually the original 4 speed box is way better than a 5 speed even with a far better shift action. It’s the best from a purely driving perspective. Probably wouldn’t handle the grunt of that engine though.

[45DCOE]

On my visit to John McCoy’s OmniTech shop up in Bellingham, Washington, he showed me two beautiful blocks being prepped for racing Ford Escorts. These were Cosworth Ford BDG 2.0 L Aluminum Alloy Cylinder Blocks bored out to 2.3 L and targeted for 250 HP each. The blocks are expensive at $5,600 USD apiece. So I asked, “Are these the blocks Jay Leno used for his 26R build”?
He said, “No. He used one made by another company” and pointed to another block sitting to the left. Lo and behold, there sat Leno’s block which had developed porosity and compression issues which the original builder was unable or unwilling to fix. Seems John’s reputation was such that Leno’s Garage sent the block to him to try and correct. He did not speak highly of the company (after several conversations) that supplied the original block, probably at a really inflated price.
I think if there is an engine currently in the car, it is the second block purchased at the same time from said company.


Roy

[rgh0]

Sense at last. A sequential box in a car like that is an abomination. Actually the original 4 speed box is way better than a 5 speed even with a far better shift action. It’s the best from a purely driving perspective. Probably wouldn’t handle the grunt of that engine though.

The 4 speed box with standard gears would probably last Ok in a road Elan even with this engine. if worried you could fit the Quaiffe 4 speed helical gear set that is quiet enough for the road and this should have no issues handling the torque

cheers
Rohan