6-speed Transaxle Anyone?

I'm just completing construction of my GT40, which is equipped with a 360 HP/360 TQ vintage '65 SBF. The power is transmitted through a custom-prepared Getrag 01E 6-speed transaxle. The transaxle is beefed-up and rebuilt (upgraded rear main bearings, altered spigot shaft and altered clutch fork), and can comfortably handle 400 HP. The transaxle has great gearing: 3.50 1st gear; 1.888 2nd gear; 1.230 3rd gear; 0.933 4th gear; 0.729 5th gear with a 0.600 6th gear and a final drive of 3.875. If my engine is capable of reaching 6000 RPM in 6th gear with my 295x50x15 tires, it would have a calculated top speed of 204 MPH!

So here is the reason for my post: Since I have sourced an overseas race-car builder to build my custom 6-speed transaxle, I would like to know if there is interest from other GT40 builders in acquiring a quality 6-speed transaxle like mine at a fair price?

The transaxle would come complete as mine did with the adaptor plate, 28 oz. flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, starter, hardware, etc…everything necessary to bolt up to a SBF.

Depends on the price.Is it posi? And wouldn't be better to use 0 balance so it would be easy to set up the engine with out the flywheel?

I would definitely be interested if the price is right. I would like to be able to buy just the transaxle without the adaptor parts for use with other engines.

Thanks for the responses, first it is not a posi, but if one was interested in upgrading it to a limited-slip, I am told it could be done, but at a premium. The reason it was done with a 28 oz. flywheel is to insure that it properly mates with the SBF engine used. If one wants to use a 50 oz. flywheel, the builder will prepare the transaxle accordingly. And if one wants to buy just the transaxle for applications other than a SBF, yes that can be done. Regarding price, it would depend on what was included, but without shipping, it would be about $7500.

Can you give an estimate on the shipping? I assume these are coming direct from Europe and so that might be the deciding factor.

Regarding shipping costs: Mine cost less than $1000 to crate, send via air cargo, and pay an import company take it through customs. If there were multiple orders, the costs would likely be even less.

Here's one thing I learned about importing things. Many of the costs are per container. I.E. box. If you put two gearboxes into 1 box it will cost a few hundred less than if you put them into two boxes and ship them separately.

My costs for shipping my gearbox back from England to San Francisco was about 600 dollars. This included a duty value of $3000.

The actual cost to ship was about $200, the rest being duty, and a long list of fees. The customs paperwork can be done by you. This will save you the insurance cost the broker charges to insure himself against you not paying him back for vouching for the value of the shipment to customs. You then get billed the customs import tax anyway later. If you pick it up at the customs area at the airport you can pay the duty directly to the customs service and cut out the middle man. There are other costs like handling at the airport that get added to your bill. This for example is for taking the package off the plane and over to customs then from customs to their receiving area. This was on the order of $50. An example of per package cost. There are several like this. USE ONE BIG BOX but don't make it any bigger than necessary to fit the gearbox(s). The shipping cost is based on size of the box and a weight scale based on how much weight will fit inside. Package it tight.

I used UPS Supply Chain Solutions. This is the business to business arm of UPS. They are cheaper than the local retail package UPS store.

I would go over to customs and find out how to do this yourself and have the shipper ONLY supply the shipping service.

This is the government you will be talking to so put on your Patience hat.

I have to wonder if I guy couldn't fly to London or paris and bring back a gearbox as excess baggage. As best I can figure out this would be close to a wash on costs excluding the hotel and vacation stuff.

Lastly, Anything you can get here in the US like clutches, flywheels, etc. I would. These sort of heavy things can cost as much to ship as they are worth. To make such a gearbox universal I would have them use a bellhousing that fits a SBF and uses ford standard inputshaft splines. That way the buyer could source flywheels, clutches, T.O. bearings, starters, etc. here much cheaper.

To add to Howard's advice; If you're dealing with reputable vendors/dealers, make your payments by credit card in order to lock in the exchange rate for that day to avoid any surprises. Otherwise, if you do a wire transfer, not only will you get charged a transfer fee, but the rate can change over the one week transfer period and will of course delay shipment by a week.

Larry, is that price for a NEW upgraded gearbox?

Andy

As to the currency wire transfer transaction. Fidelity did mine for free. No fee and market price on currency. I do have a "little" money with them but after I checked with my bank and found that they wanted 50 bucks and nearly a 10% bump on the curency rate I started checking around! Fidelity is my broker and it went like a knife through butter. I pays to check around for this service.

You are going to need some bank info from the receiving bank. Things like receiving account numbers, the sellers bank routing number, Corespondent bank routing numbers, etc. Start asking questions about this. It's not rocket science but it does require you to learn the process.

If you have a large bank like B of A, Chase, JP Morgan, Citi, etc. they will be able to help you better than a local saving and loan.

If you can do a credit card that would be easier but not all reputable businesses will take a credit card internationally.

You have homework grasshopper. Good luck.

The transaxle case is not new, but basically everything else is new.