It's not perfect, but I quite like it.
i think that maybe the gearbox assumes that the engine has more torque than it does, so it does take a fair bit of accelerator depression before it "kicks down", but I actually quite like that. I can actually use what torque the engine does have without it dropping a gear and revving up.
I think it would suit a turbo conversion really well, but I have no plans to do that. I have got a set of Rover 75 turbo pistons stashed away though.
One think that's quite interesting is that the "sport" or manual mode is a real manual mode. It is possible to put it manually into 5th and then give it 100% throttle and the gearbox obediently stays in 5th. I haven't seen that before. It will only drop to 4th if the speed gets too low for 5th.
If you drive it gently at 30mph it pretty much goes straight up to 4th gear and holds it which is really nice.
On the Paddington flyover which is a 30mph speed limit with average speed cameras, if I push my luck to about 32mph it will even hold 5th.
Motorway cruising at 70mph is about 3000rpm which doesn't seem too bad.
I do think that I have a bit of engine vibration so maybe one day I'll have to balance the flex plate and torque converter better.
SWMBO drove it on Sunday morning and absolutely loved it.
She's been driving manual cars for 27 years and only drove an auto once, many years ago and didn't like it.
But she adapted to this immediately and straight away she's driving it better than her TD4.
Sunday afternoon I got an Android head unit working in it.
Next jobs are to seal up a slight exhaust blow and find a good prop shaft and try it offroad, and paint the sills.
