Ha! Isabella is back from the mechanic today. New gearbox, Quaife diff and new clutch fitted. What follows is a shameless re-post of my last post in the Quaife ATB group buy thread:
Just got home from chewing through a tank of petrol coming home and then on to my fave local country lanes.
First impressions on the commute bit. The steering is slightly heavier but not tiring or annoyingly so. Sound wise its actually quieter than standard which sort of surprised me. You get a more mechanical sensation if that makes sense, as in you're aware of the presence of 'something' that wasn't there before. Not intrusively so, just sort of there in the back of your mind. But if you'd never driven an open diff 500 you probably wouldn't even notice it.
Now the fun bit. Thrashing on country lanes. Night and day difference. It takes a few familiar fun corners to re-calibrate your expectations and reactions. The front end feels like a different car. A much more planted car. Grippier but not in a sticky tyres sort of way. You feel like this is the way it was supposed to be all along. Whereas previously there was a lot of fuss and spin and suspension flopping about it now feels like you're in control. You can point the car in to a corner, keep the power steady and then accelerate out of the corner with none of the drama around unsettling it or bleeding off speed or the steering going wobbly or the wheels unbalanced. It just sticks and goes in a slightly disconcerting way.
It's hard to describe. The words I keep coming back to are solid and mechanical. You're aware that something mechanical is taming forces that previous conspired against you. You come into a corner where you know the inside has previously gone light and bled off power and you get a very feint sensation of 'something' progressive and well oiled happening up front for a split second and then you realise that there was no lightened wheel spinning sensation and holy **** you're on the straight after the corner. Then next time without realising it you're pushing harder and faster than you ever have.
After a very short space of time I was easily 10-15mph faster across my country lane route.
