<VV> 5 speed tranny?

[Bill Elliott]

I know ZF has a sequential manual transmission used by Lotus in the late 
50's but the first production car I'm familiar with was the 
(conventionally shifted) ZF 5 speed available as a late year option in 
the 1962 Alvis TD21, predating Ferrari's 5 speed use in road cars 
(275GTB) by a couple of years.

"Normal" cars (FIAT/Alfa/Mercedes) didn't pick up 5 speeds until 1966. A 
'66 Mercedes 230SL with the rare ZF 5 speed is suddenly worth six 
figures now... mainly due to its extreme rarity even in a pricey 
model.... a rarity which continued through the 280SL when people would 
still spend the extra for an automatic, but not that 5th gear.

Toyota "mainstreamed" the use of 5 speeds in the (the "5" is SR5 touted 
this fact... circa 1973/74?) while the first (optional) 5 speed domestic 
GM I'm aware of is the Borg-Warner in the 1976 Vega/Monza four 
cylinder.  How long did it take them to put more than a 4+OD even in the 
Corvette?

I'd say that the time line makes contemplation of a 5 speed trans for 
the Corvair improbable if not impossible.... while an overdrive would 
have been of more likely consideration in the conventional GM cars, 
still being used by a number of European marques well into the 80's 
(Corvette 4+3 anyone?) ;-)

Bill

 

Bruce Schug wrote:

>one had a five-speed. I remember autocrossing in the '70's, maybe  
>around '73 or so, when the first five-speeds came out. As I recall,  
>there was a sporty version of some kind of s**t-box Toyota that had  
>the first five-speed, at least the first one in general production.  
>Maybe it was a Corolla SR5?
>
>Now I'm sure that there are a couple of you guys who can tall us all  
>about when the first five-speeds were available, and perhaps prove me  
>wrong. But the point is, that I doubt that anyone gave the first  
>thought to having a five-speed in a Corvair while they were being  
>produced.
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