Anyway, last weekend I really got my first real major opportunity to use the car since it got the ZF. I spent all day cruising around the Swiss and German countryside with the car effortlessly changing between 3rd, 4th and 4th lock-up. Absolutely fantastic. It really has given this car legs it otherwise didn't have. I did a fuel economy test between Zürich and Basel which is fairly flat at as near to 100kph (60mph-ish) as I could keep it. I reckon in these unrealistic conditions the car did a tiny bit over 34mpg. Consider that as an absolute theoretical maximum in the way VW advertises their latest Golf diesel will do 74mpg but you won't. It's difficult to be sure as topping the tank consistently isn't so easy. Certainly at the UK limit of 70mph, the magic 30mpg looks a distinct possibility with care. With regards to my earlier comments about gearing it would be interesting to learn how this would affect economy. It could go either way. 4th and lockup are going to come into play more frequently at realistic speeds but of course the engine runs faster. But still 20% or so less than standard AND with no converter slip.
Realistically, it'll play all day on open roads at around 28mpg so. Which you can quite easily do in actually quite a modest petrol car even today. I was certainly shocked as how bad a Mercedes c-class hire car could be if you put your foot down and that's only a 1.6 with several turbochargers in the modern idiom.
Anyway my question is to you all because I'm not used to the ZF and I wonder if this is normal. 3rd and 4th are as near to silent in operation as makes any difference but 1 and 2 aren't as you might expect in an auto. Oddly 2nd is noisier than first, which is the opposite of the BW. Is this normal? It's not intrusive and it's lower overall than the BW anyway, but noticeable given the overall improvement in refinement.
Get those ZF projects done. You'll be glad you did. I'd not want to go back to a standard car after this experience. It's difficult to describe the effect without mechanically stating the obvious but the whole effect is simply to make the car "in tune" with modern road conditions with affecting the character of car.
Better still I have some suspension work to eliminate some unwanted movement and a new cam to restore a limit more power. So things are only going to get better! The lack of power I currently have I'm hoping will explain a slight reluctance to kick down which so far is my only criticism. The up changes seem very well judged, so I'm thinking the control cable is adjusted well.
Do I sound pleased? Couldn't be happier with the results. Could be happier with the labour costs though. If you can't DIY, this is going to be an issue. Even supplying the ready made cross-member, gearbox and speedo drive, bespoke engineering takes time..... A bracket here, a heat-shield there.... Mine shall we say cost the price of a fairly decent P6, certainly all of what my car is worth over again but then my car has a mission to drive from Switzerland to the UK and to Spain.
