Bye bye auto, hello 5 speed

Driving an automatic track car on a racetrack was never going to satisfy us or achieve ideal lap times, so a manual transmission swap was first and foremost on our plans driveline.

We settled on using a late model remote shifter W58 gearbox mating it to an auto bellhousing with a Phil Bradshaw adapter plate.
A custom lightweight 5.1kg billet chromoly flywheel, heavy duty 10" Hilux clutch / pressure plate and Howe 82870 concentric throwout bearing / Earls braided line were chosen and utilised.
A JZZ30 clutch master cylinder resleeved to 3/4", JZZ30 5 speed clutch pedal assembly and a JZZ30 rear tailshaft was used whilst and custom length JZZ30 front tailshaft section was professionally fabricated and balanced.
Finally, an MX83 mechanical to electronic speedo adapter was used to convert to the signals expected by the Soarer speedometer.

The auto to 5 speed conversion transformed the Soarer and it finally started feeling like a track car.