Interested in following new build?

Stay tuned for more information.

Uh ... Yes, please. With photos!

Hanging on every word ........

I'll bet it has some things in common with that gray roadster Sandy fell in love with last year.

"I'M" all ears!

I think Alan nailed it.

I will say that it's about damned time!!

When will it be delivered? Want to convoy to Pismo?

Waiting, waiting......

Marty -- you are such a tease. One post, and then vamoose? C'm on big guy, tell all . . .

U GUYS HAVE IT ALL WRONG
MARTY IS HAVING A FACELIFT AND BOOB JOB

Gerd was the only one who got it right. My boobs are starting to sag a bit and eye lids need a little tuck, JK. After going back and forth in my head on whether I should do it or not; I came to the conclusion that in order to get a good night sleep I am just gonna do it. I think I have what is called "the sickness" a phrase Stan Galant has royalties on. I decided that Henry and the crew at Intermeccanica are the best fit for me. I tried to talk myself out of it by using Vince's dollar max strategy and Will's buy a used one (which makes a ton of sense) but I have never seen what I am looking for on the used Market to date.

For my needs and obviously weather has a lot to do with this decision, a Water Cooled IM Roadster with real Heat and Air is the car for me. A car that I can drive 7-8 months a year instead of 3-4 and a car that my wife will want to drive too. A car that I can take to work with work cloths on and drive home in the rain if the weather changes as it does very often in Chicago. I am in the very early stages so I wont have much to show you for several weeks. This is going to be a lot of fun:)

I guessed right !... do I win an egg sammich ?

Sure Alan, I owe you one for all the times I called you with dumb ?'s when I had my old Speedster.

Marty-

You've got the sickness bad. This one will be the one you keep forever. You'll not be disappointed.

Amen,and amen! Stan is right on. Get down with your bad self,Marty!
Start dishing details ASAP!!

Marty, I drove one of Henry's water pumpers last year and was very impressed. The only thing I didn't like about the car was the VW four speed tranny. The car really needs a five speed.
When talking to Henry I asked him why he hadn't installed a Subie engine in any of his cars. He said, "Because no one has asked for one yet."
A new IM with Subie five speed tranny and engine would be an awesome combo.

Ron, its not that no one has asked him it was more that he did not like the fact that Subaru would not supply new engines. That said, he did agree to do my car with a Suby engine. I think I'll be the first to have a factory installed Subie motor in an IM. I would like more feedback on the benefits of the 5-speed. Henry is confident that the 4 spd is enough.

Thanks

Marty; don't know if this will help answer your question about 4 speed versus 5 speed transmissions but my subi with a 4 speed auto cruises 80mph at 2500rpm.

But Marty, it's going to be a widebody....right?

Sorry Troy, going old school this time. Well, at least on the outside.

Marty--good for you! Great decision and what excitement you are in for! Enjoy, enjoy--you have been Speedsterless too long.

Marty, like most of us on here, I knew it was just a matter of time. I'm excited for you & Sandy!

Count me as interested in following this build.

Thanks for the the good sentiment, makes it all the more exciting, right!

The right car for the right person.....good for you Sandy !

I only want to see pictures of the car if Sandy is included! Now that will be tough but then it is a nice pleasant drive to Vancouver - in the summer of course.

Shoot.....

I was looking forward to pictures of the Boob job.

And on that "I can wear work clothes to work" BS....I thought you were a Lawyer or some such nonsense - don't you wear a suit to work or sumthin?? what's the BFD??

Then, Marty wrote: "I would like more feedback on the benefits of the 5-speed. Henry is confident that the 4 spd is enough."

Listen to Henry. You won't need it. There is WAY MORE than enough torque to satisfy your every need in most Subaru mills. You don't gain top end with a 5-speed. All you get is closer spacing between the lower gears and an extra cog in there someplace. Where that cog sits depends on what gear ratios you decide on and how they fit the torque curve of your specific engine and whether it has a turbo on it or not.

The gear ratios chosen should keep the engine well within it's torque curve peak for every gear chosen. Fourth (or fifth, if you prefer), most likely will have the same ratio (.89 in the cluster, 3:88 in the differential - that should give you 70-ish mph at 3250 rpm, regardless of engine, so see where the torque curve is on your Subaru engine at 3250 - I'll bet it'll be about centered). If Henry thinks the torque is sufficient to handle more load, he can run a lower numeric ratio in the differential (but I doubt he would do that).

Another thing to consider is that, if you run a Subaru engine AND it's corresponding Subaru transmission, then the engine will end up in your back seat (sorry, that's just how it's designed). Is that what you want??? Or do you want it out back, like Dr. Porsche designed it? THAT decision makes a BIG difference in $$$$$ and engineering hours spent. And speaking of Engineering hours, I personally believe that you can't beat SAS for a Subaru-based Speedster, but then you have that nasty, 3-year-or-so wait to contend with (and it looks like you've already contended with that and it lost).

If you really want a 5-speed, then you have a couple of options with a rear-engine-based car: Porsche 901 or 915. I would go with the 915 with stock gearing for a 3-ish-litre Porsche engine, as the torque curves will be more-or-less the same, but then it's up to Henry if he wants to mate the two together, rather than run something he's more comfortable building with (he's used 915 trannys before).

Again, I would sreiously listen to Henry on this......

Gordon
The Speedstah guy from the Secession State.

But then, you're gonna say something like: Hey! I have a 5-speed in my Boxster and it is really nifty"!! (You DO have a 5-speed in that little missile, don't you? Not one of those "P-tronic automatics or something??)

OK, let's say you do. If you look at the torque curve of a non-turbo Boxster, it's relatively narrow; power comes on a bit high in the RPM range, and then petres out a bit low in the range (compared to some other engines). Nothing wrong with that, but it means that, in order to keep the engine within the "working range" of the torque curve whenever shifting up or down one cog, they needed four gears to make the ranges right before you engage the "direct" gear, in this case fifth. so....whenever you shift, you come in to the lower end of the torque curve, accelerate up to the top of the range, then shift and the next gear returns you to the lower end (OK, somewhere between middle and the lower end) of the curve, thereby maintaining torque (power) throughout the shifting range(s).

Got all that??

Again.....LISTEN TO HENRY!!!

(This is not a paid endorsement for Henry Reisner, Intermeccanica, it's subsidiaries, employees or clients, living or dead. It just sounds like one......)

Marty, great engine choice.
Sorry Gordon, but I disagree with your 4 speed/5 speed comparison. I didn't like the tranny is Henry's water pumper that I drove last year. Granted, my test drive was a short one, but the gearing seemed wrong. Second was too short for around town and third was too tall. I never got the car into fourth gear.
A four speed is one big compromise. Want close ratio gears for good acceleration? Then you will have to live with a high reving engine and higher fuel consumption.
Want a taller fourth gear for highway cruising? Great, but then you have a big gap between third and fourth gear.
For me there would be only one choice, the Subie 5 speed.
Gordon, I don't understand your 'engine in the back seat' comment. The Subie 5 speed sits in the same location as the VW four speed.

Except the Subie transmission expects to be behind the engine. Not sure if the R&P can be swapped as easily as a VW transaxle.

Gordo - I believe that Marty's Boxter IS an automatic. Oh the shame! ;-)

It's all in the ratios and application. In the midwest, a 4 speed is more than adequate. A stock VW transaxle with a 3.88 R/P isn't right- 1str is unusable, second is also too tall, third is too long a reach from second, and fourth is a bit short.

Gordon's 4 speed ratios (do a search) would be my personal pick for a water-pumper IM, mine would be good for a big air-cooled mill.

4spd will be VW and 5spd would be Porsche, Did Gordo call me a Lawyer? He must be mad at me or something.

Stan, I did not see Gordon's recommended gear ratios for the 3:88. I did a quick search. Can one of you guys post them here?

MARTY U BASTARD
IS THAT WHAT U ARE DOING WITH ALL THE MONEY YOU WON FROM VINCE, JIMMMY,BILL AND I WITH THOSE DAMN ITALIAN CARDS IN PALM SPRINGS

Mine:

3.30 first
2.07 second
1.31 third
.89 fourth

3.88 R/P

Gordon's:

3.09 first
1.76 second
1.13 third
.89 fourth

3.88 R/P

I think you could probably get away with a .82 fourth with Gordon's ratios and a water pumper. The spreads are nice, and it'd have a nice long 4th.

Most gear ratio recommendations assume the only thing a guy wants to do is drag race. A 5 speed would be very nice (Terry Nuckels has posted his ratios several times), but only if you are really, really committed to a drag race first gear or live in the mountains- otherwise, just moving first up a bit makes perfect sense, especially for a flat-land interstate missile.

Henry's stock ratio 4 speed with a 3.44 R/P is a good transaxle- what Gordon and I are recommending is probably $500- 1000 more.

Subarus have a VERY flat and broad torque curve. So much so that it doesn't feel like you are accelerating as fast as you are. You know, when you get on a peaky engine, and you feel that rush as power increases on the way up the rev range? Subys are NOT like that. They have good torque almost everywhere in the rev range. BTW, drove Subarus for the last six years, both turbo and NA.

So I am thinking trans choice is not as critical as it would be with an aircooled motor, so like Gordon says: listen to Henry, the man knows what he is doing.

I really don't think you can alter a Subaru trans for rear-engine use. If you really want a five-speed, Marty, go Porsche 915 with your Subaru. Also, if you can find an EJ-33 out of an early 90s SVX, you will have 230hp of watercooled flat six. Fits in the same space as an EJ-25, and electronics are nowhere near as complicated as today. Heat, power, AC, that would be my choice. Many have been installed in VW Vanagons....

And to answer your thread topic question, Marty, Yes!

Stan:

If you ran a .82 fourth with my cluster recommendation, I think you would have too big a gap between 3'rd and 4'th: Rev it up nicely in 3'rd and then "uhhhhhgggggg......" down too low into fourth where it struggles so you end up shifting back and forth between 3'rd and 4'th and are never satisfied.

I would probably go with a 3:42 or so rear end and live with that and THAT would also be OK with a forced-aspiration engine (Turbo). The ratios I list are expecting the torque curve of most of the T-1 (performance) engines out there; peakier and narrower than a Suby engine, as Danny points out - Subys really like to pull (and seem to love revs as much as aircooled engines).

And BTW, folks: As Stan alluded, my gearing recommendation assumes somewhat hilly terrain. If you live in the flatlands it would be a bit taller, with more of a gap between gears because you wouldn't be pulling hills. Then again, making a trip over mountains would mean more third gear hill pulling. I come from the era when it was encouraged to keep the revs up and ride around town in 3'rd a lot, seldom dropping below 3,000 rpm at any time and NEVER below 2,500. My driving style may not equal yours.

BTW: The original Speedster trannys were geared somewhat lower than cabs and coupes in order to get better acceleration from essentially the same displacement engine (or smaller). Trouble was (is) that you run out of steam on the top end - Original Speedsters really crank at turnpike speeds, but they were killers on the track, where you spend most of your time in 2'nd and 3'rd.

So here's the deal in a nutshell: Proper gearing takes into consideration the type(s) of driving you expect to do and the width/height of the power (torque) band of the engine, and endeavors to keep the engine within that power (torque) band of rpm under all conditions that you will be driving in. That means that you have a proper gear for the engine at all times - in general...you only have 4 - 5 choices so there are trade-offs to consider.

And remember what Stan mentioned: "Stock" gearing, i.e.; what everyone else is running, is cheaper than "custom" gearing but might not be right for your application (even though a lot of us live with whatever we get).

Gentlemen- Henry doesn't use a Subaru engine. It's an Audi inline 4.

Gordon- Right now, I'm running a .82 fourth with a significantly taller 3rd than yours- and an air-cooled engine. It's ALMOST perfect, but a tad too much of a drop between 3rd and 4th. I'm switching to a .89. Your transaxle, with it's longer third could tolerate a .82 fourth- as long as the engine's torque curve will handle it, and I really think any modern water-cooled 4 cylinder would.

The point is- a 5 speed would be nice in some circumstances, but for 95% of what Marty's going to be doing- it'll be a bit like the 6 speed manual in my old 540i: an extra gear to get through.

Hey Gerd, It looks like Marty went to the dark side.....
another one bites the dust.....

yeah you are right god I wish I had his cash or I should say our cash