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Special Sports gearbox in DB18 saloon

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qantasqf1
Posts: 299
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:13 pm

Special Sports gearbox in DB18 saloon

Post by qantasqf1 »

Many years ago my buddy and I bought a DB18 saloon which needed a fair bit of work. Finally back on the road, I found, to my chagrin, its performance left something to be desired, in fact a lot to be desired. I did all the usual stuff like FF oil level, compression test, ignition, carburation to no avail; I was sufficiently paranoid to go as far as checking the valve timing, but I simply could not find out why the car needed 2nd gear to climb even a moderate hill.

In the end I gave up trying to fix the damnable thing.

Another issue with the car was that third gear slipped occasionally so one Saturday afternoon I took off the lid to manually adjust it and found the reason for the lousy performance: someone in the past had fitted a Special Sports overdrive gearbox. With the saloon car’s higher ratio back axle in conjunction with different internal ratios the reduced torque completely altered the characteristics of the car. After swapping the overdrive box with the standard box the car’s performance was fine. Incidentally, we sold the overdrive box for $3500 which was $500 more than we paid for the car itself....

grahamemmett
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Re: Special Sports gearbox in DB18 saloon

Post by grahamemmett »

!
Graham Emmett ¦ DLOC Chairman ¦ chair@dloc.co.uk ¦ 07967 109160
Northwich, Cheshire
DB18 1949 LCV522 (Yes that one with the P100s)

grahamemmett
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Re: Special Sports gearbox in DB18 saloon

Post by grahamemmett »

Brilliant story,

So, the way I read it - if we put a Consort saloon gearbox in a Special Sports it should have much livelier acceleration but struggle on top speed. Unless we add the Consort back axle when it should perform like the saloon - albeit a bit faster with the higher output engine.

The Special Sports struggles on hills and you’re forced to drop back to “Top” so I’m thinking with this gearbox hills will be easy. That said, the owner of this proposed swap lives in Holland which we all know is as flat as a pancake. But it isn’t! Hendrik-Jan’s superb excursions last June showed us the east of the country which has plenty of hills.
:-)
Graham Emmett ¦ DLOC Chairman ¦ chair@dloc.co.uk ¦ 07967 109160
Northwich, Cheshire
DB18 1949 LCV522 (Yes that one with the P100s)

Peter Grant
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Re: Special Sports gearbox in DB18 saloon

Post by Peter Grant »

Hi,
Many years ago I was in Perth WA for the Western Australian Club's 21st birthday rally and drove a DB18 DHC behind a very fine Special Sports.
On the flat the Special Sports would easily draw away but at any hill the DB 18 DHC would catch up and just about push the Special Sports up the hill.
Having said that the Special Sports' wonderful gear box and differential combination gives that relaxing low rev cruising speed performance that is such a great experience.
Cheers
Peter Grant

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