Discussion
Morning guys, I'm looking at my third mk1 at the moment and I've found a cracking car, it is however an auto. It's the earlier 1.6 116hp engine. I shall be going to see the car in a few days but was looking for some opinions on the auto (with overdrive) box. Does it ruin a great drivers car? Does it work surprisingly well? Thanks.
As above, the auto has a different tune (not really detuned) to give more midrange torque and less top end to make it more suitable to an auto.
They are actually supposed to be pretty good and some people prefer them. I've never driven one myself though so can't comment on how they drive.
They are actually supposed to be pretty good and some people prefer them. I've never driven one myself though so can't comment on how they drive.
For the last 7 years I've owned a MK1 Eunos which started life as an auto, but was converted by the previous owner to a manual - a fairly simple conversion, as far as I'm aware. As a comparison, my brother recently bought a MK1 Eunos which is, and has always been a manual.
Having now driven both of them, I think I actually prefer my 'converted' setup. The torque being available lower in the power band, to compensate for the original auto box seems to work very well with the manual box. It might not have the power available right at the top of the rev-range that the engine originally paired to the manual box has, but in all honesty, I probably make use of the low down torque more than I would do the high revs.
For reference, the only difference between the auto engine and the manual engine are the cam profiles (simple to swap, if you want to), and the compression ration is a bit lower on the auto. Another benefit of the auto engine is that if you ever wanted to go forced-induction, both the cam-profile difference and lower compression means it will be even better suited to FI than the manual equivalents!
Just putting the idea out there that if you've found a really nice auto 5, I think they're pretty easy and cheap to convert to a manual at a later date if you get fed up of the autobox and if you're planning to FI it, can offer even bigger benefits than the manual!
EDIT - Just noticed that you're also in Cambs. If you want to see what an auto--to-manual converted MK1's like, then let me know!
Having now driven both of them, I think I actually prefer my 'converted' setup. The torque being available lower in the power band, to compensate for the original auto box seems to work very well with the manual box. It might not have the power available right at the top of the rev-range that the engine originally paired to the manual box has, but in all honesty, I probably make use of the low down torque more than I would do the high revs.
For reference, the only difference between the auto engine and the manual engine are the cam profiles (simple to swap, if you want to), and the compression ration is a bit lower on the auto. Another benefit of the auto engine is that if you ever wanted to go forced-induction, both the cam-profile difference and lower compression means it will be even better suited to FI than the manual equivalents!
Just putting the idea out there that if you've found a really nice auto 5, I think they're pretty easy and cheap to convert to a manual at a later date if you get fed up of the autobox and if you're planning to FI it, can offer even bigger benefits than the manual!
EDIT - Just noticed that you're also in Cambs. If you want to see what an auto--to-manual converted MK1's like, then let me know!
Edited by benharris on Friday 4th September 16:04
Patch888 said:
Morning guys, I'm looking at my third mk1 at the moment and I've found a cracking car, it is however an auto. It's the earlier 1.6 116hp engine. I shall be going to see the car in a few days but was looking for some opinions on the auto (with overdrive) box. Does it ruin a great drivers car? Does it work surprisingly well? Thanks.
I own a Mk1 Eunos 1.8 auto. Due to an injury I have to drive an auto, so can't comment/compare it to a manual, as I've only ever driven an auto. Other than the gearbox, I assume suspension etc is the same as a manual so in that respect it doesn't ruin the car. It's still great fun and you can drive it hard and not be traveling at silly speeds.
I guess in part, it depends how you drive....if you want to drive everywhere flat out and want to rip through the gears, then it probably does take something away from the experience.
However I've driven mine on all sorts of roads and done a track day in it (at Blyton) and found it fun and involving. On the track it was fun and due to it being an older auto box, it's relatively controllable - in that by pressing buttons and locking it into a certain gear, you can stop it changing up until you want it to. It'll still hang it's arse out if you want it to
On open flowing A roads it's a lovely cruiser and then on tighter stuff (I live on the edge of the Peak District) it does the business too.
The only time it can be slightly caught out, is on tighter corners, as sometimes it might be slightly caught between gears and despite what people say about it having a slightly better low/mid range than the manual, it does like to be kept above 3,00rpm and so if you're below that it needs a second or so to really get shifting again.
Oh and if you do test one, they do have a bit of a thump going from 1st to 2nd but they all do that.
I tried the 1.6 and 1.8 and found the 1.8 more spritely but that's a whole different debate....
Having just bought a mk1 Eunos and owned a mk2 and mk3. I find the gear change is part of the appeal in a manual car (maybe less so in the mk3). I think if you have no real reason to get an auto (for example medical reasons as above. I would certainly try and find a manual to try before you go for the auto.
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