OK before anybody flames me I know the car wasn't designed for this for a million reasons...blah, blah, blah

Does/has anyone ever put/attempted to put a manual transmission in an SC? If so could you please relay your experience? (love the car but miss the manual)...

TIA

 

Good question. There are times I would love to row through the gears as well. Problem with installing the manual would be all of the idiot lights that would come on as the ECU's talk to each other and matching up the shift points with engne RPM ,etc.....I am sure it would be done, but not sure of the after effects of such a process. The ECU may just balk at the whole thing and backfiring, bad idle, fuel ratio issues, etc... all could come into play. But.....by all means I hope someone does give it a go.
Lee

 

Slightly off topic but similar........ Do you think it is possible to have an automatic with paddle electronic up and down shifting?

 

on top of the ecu issue, there is always the whole tranny attaching to the engine, which is not going to be easy. you will need a special new housing made, together with all the flywheel, etc... that's all custom and it's not cheap at all to make it

and then of course, for the ecu you will almost have to override everything and put in a standalone and use that to control the engine, otherwise it's gonna be hard to get the car going well

regarding the paddel shift, not sure if it's easy too. the gs400 had it, that's the closest i can think of. but not sure how easy it is to port those setup over to the 430 drivetrain

 

yes - somone has indeed put a manual trans in the vehicle. I use Nalley Lexus Smyrna, GA and one of the customers has dumped well over 100k into his SC to make it one incredible machine. It apparently is a hobby of his (too much money/time on his hands) at any rate he (will remain nameless) took me for a ride and he had a full 6speed manual tans in the car. Twin turbo with modivied headers among several other engine upgrades. Suspension wise he put in a full Active Body Suspension very similar to that of the SL Mercedes 03' and up. Mac computer as his centerconsole. It was impressive to say the least. Nalley Lexus tested his vehicle and it was putting out just over 600 at the wheel and let me tell you this thing was insanely fast. Believe me... I have driven the finest vehicles out there and this one put many of them to shame. IE - I have driven the Mercedes SLR, AM V12 vanquish, the new Ferrari 430. Granted these are sheer machines designed for extremely agressive driving but this SC would have given them a run for their money on any strait away but not in cornering although it did corner like a champ. its just impossible to make up for things like dry sump lubircation on the SLR eliminating the need for an oil pan...


I'll see if i can't find pics of the car - i have them somewhere.

 

I believe that twin turbo has a TH400 auto tran in it. It has the b&m ratchet shifter in it.

 

I too was just thinking the other day i wish someone had attemped this conversion. making this car a 6 speed manual would truely be amazing.

anyone?

 

It has been done already on the V8 4.3 liter engine.

The Rod Millen V8 IS430 had a 6 speed manual Supra MK4 TT transmission attached to the Lexus 4.3 liter V8 in the IS. They had to develop a wrapper interface in order to fool the computer into believing it is still attached to an automatic transmission while the manual transmission works like a normal stick shift.

 

Todd from TM Engineering has 100% bolt on 1/2/3uz to V160 six speed adapter plates on sale now. Perfect fit.

Eric