Hi All,

Just blew up my second trans (officially 3rd including previous owner) at Thunderhill this last weekend. It's 3rd gear again :P

I think it's time to figure out a better solution rather than throwing another stock trans in and hoping I can get at least a dozen days out of it before it breaks again. My car is a dedicated road course track car and is never driven on the street. It makes up 450'ish whp on a 3076 turbo setup.

I'm leaning towards the Samsonas because I don't have to modify the tunnel and not as much of a weight penalty as the other two options. Also, I don't think I would be happy with the shift feel of the CD009 even though it's a very inexpensive option compared to the other two. I'm not considering a sequential because I prefer to row my own gears and if I was going to go this direction it would make more sense to go with the BMW DCT setup.

Any reason I should give the Tremec more consideration? I've heard they have issues with higher rpm shifts and I'm always shifting between 8.5 to 9k rpms.

 

Track car - or - race car? Meaning what transmission restrictions do you have or is this just a fun car? Is this a catastrophic failure or wear? Always at Thunderhill?

(I've no solutions but am still interested. )

-- Chuck

 

Odd that you are having so many failures at that power level. Have you torn one down to see why? Is it just typical synchro wear from harsh use or is 3rd failing completely? I have swapped in a used one in mine due to 3rd gear synchro wear but that was at 160,000 miles and lots of track use. I am on stock power but there are plenty out there running your power levels on track with stock trans. I am sure you will get input on the Tremec here at some point. There is also a facebook group called S2000 Track Talk with some pretty serious builds floating around there if you dont hear back here first.


@Charper732 may have some input as well. He does sell rebuilt S2000 transmissions (one of the few that has the parts left to do it) and has WPC treated options but he may have more advice on other options as well.

 

Track day and HPDE with the potential for Time Trials and this car would fall into Limited class rules. I'm in Socal but I do like to travel so I'm up north at Sonoma & Laguna as much as possible. I've been as far east as Road Atlanta and I hope to make it out to VIR & Mid Ohio this upcoming year.

 

I sheared a 3rd of the teeth off of 3rd gear last time. I expect to see at least one tooth missing if not multiple. I can tell something fell into the bottom of the trans now and hear it in all gears :P

Part of the problem is my aggressive down shifting from 4th to 3rd. It's a bad habit I have.

 

May as well attend an OIR event while passing through the middle here Our local NASA region runs about 4 of our TT events during the season there.

It is definitely a track that requires respecting it and taking your time learning it. Lots of chances to stuff it into a wall. Nothing is flat, lots of off camber corners and blind apexes over hills. I think a lot of the incidents are simply from people pushing it too soon before really learning the track, but you can still definitely get in trouble quick there and people that know the track well still get into trouble now and then.

 

My vote goes to samsonas. No specific reason other than that I've seen other s2ks and an built NA1 NSX using it.

 

Been going back and forth for the last couple months but I think it's time to commit to the Samsonas!