Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Just an idle thought - has anyone tried fitting the Toyota gearbox out of the Excel into the Elan or Plus 2?

The Toyota T50 might be a more practical choice. It's smaller, lighter, and would have a better chance of fitting. It was rated for 124 hp.

The Elite & Eclat S1 5-speed was basically the late Elan 5-Spd's Lotus-Maxi gearbox with a longer tailshaft housing. It was a snug fit into the chassis. For the S2.2 versions of the Elite & Eclat, the Getrag 265 still fit in the chassis. However, for the Excel, the backbone portion of the chassis was enlarged to permit the use of the Toyota W58 5-spd. I don't have dimensions to share, but I suspect you would have a packaging challenge to fit the W58 into an Elan chassis... eight pounds of stuff in a five pound bag. It was rated for 204 hp.

The T50 was used in the
82-83 Carina (3A/1S/2T-GE/3T-E),
83 Celica (3T-E,2T-GE),
82 Corona (1S),
86 Corolla Levin (4A-GELU, 3A-U/4A-U some)

Regards,
Tim Engel

Thanks for that Tim - I'm not planning to fit one myself, was just wondering seeing as the Elite/Eclat originally had the Lotus five speed.

Matt
I tried that many years ago , used a twincam bell-housing and moved the gear-change forward , shortening the tail-housing and had the output shaft broached to suit...

Fell down on the casting mounting/fixing lug....wouldn't fit in the backbone chassis..

John