Interesting to hear comments on that gearbox. This was well before the word "Tremec" was regarded as a good thing. And that's because the Tremec Holden used in those cars was the truck version of the T56.
When Holden brought the Chevy 5.7 Gen-III V8 to the Commodore in 1999, with it came a new 6-speed gearbox, both a massive selling point against the Ford equivalents which had the ancient 5.0 Windsor V8 and T5 gearbox. While the HSV variants had decent power levels, the basic Holden cars were massively choked down and only made 220 kW / 300 hp, although that was easily eclipsing what Ford could deliver with the Windsor. However, it was a common complaint among owners and especially the press, the "moonshot" gearing of 5th and 6th and the lack of low rev grunt from the LS1 made the cars feel soft. And because of that truck spec T56 Tremec gearbox, the press actually favored the ancient T5 Ford was using. Common complaints were as mentioned in the video, the heavy feel and reluctance to select gears. HSV fitted short shift kits, but that didn't do much at all to improve the feel of what was a gearbox out of its depth. But..................the cars were FAST, and THAT spoke louder than the added finesse Ford brought to the table.
When Ford decided to finally join the six speed club, they took the basic T56 design and renovated it to make it more application specific. It was still a hefty thing to use, but the gearing was better and the shift feel vastly improved. Ford also specified double synchros in all six forward gears to improve shift feel.
From the Ford press release dated Monday, August 2, 2004 -
“Ford and the Premier Automotive group have a distinguished history employing the T56 six speed transmissions, which features on products such as the Mustang Cobra R and the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.
“Drawing on that experience has helped in providing a transmission that further accentuates the sporting nature of the XR6 Turbo and XR8 while providing outstanding shift quality and performance feel.”
There was one teething issue that got a lot of press at the time.....................
When Ford brought the XR6 Turbo with the new turbo version of the "Barra" engine, the limiting factor at the time was the ancient T5 transmission not being able to handle more than the 240 kW (322 hp) and 450 Nm (332 ft-lb) outputs. This meant there was no FPV version of the XR6 Turbo for the BA series. That changed with the BA MK II update that brought the 6-speed gearbox to market. This allowed FPV to boost the power of the turbo Barra up to 270 kW (362 hp) and 550 Nm (407 ft-lb), which ended up being the most torque of any Australian car up until that point, a title held for many years. This engine went into what was called the F6 Typhoon (sedan) and F6 Tornado (ute).
From the FPV press release dated Thursday, October 7, 2004 -
"Because of the benchmark torque output, the F6 Typhoon features a high-tech twin-plate clutch engineered and supplied by British-based AP Racing. This 240mm clutch system creates more precise power delivery and increased durability for sports driving but also reduces pedal effort, therefore providing a more user-friendly manual gearbox for everyday driving. The F6 Typhoon is the only Australian-built vehicle with a twin-plate clutch."
When the press got hold of the cars, it sparked a PR nightmare for FPV. The journalist test drivers were having issues selecting gears, which they naturally reported on. FPV denied there was an issue, even calling out "abusive" driving techniques from the press. It wasn't until the publication in question displayed the issue with FPV engineers present did FPV discover there was a problem. The issue turned out a 0.50c circlip that was out of spec. This put a dampener on the new model's impact, but FPV easily sorted the issue and the Typhoon went on to be a massive success and cult classic. FPV actually ditched the dual-plate design for the later FG models.
Returning back to Tremec gearboxes, Ford held the edge with their version of the T56, which had more appropriate gearing for both the V8 and inline 6 engines. Ford and Holden would both later change to the newer Tremec TR6060 version with improved shift feel. I think prior to the TR6060, the Tremec name was not a desirable thing when it came to gearboxes. Today, the Tremec name is synonymous with strength and shift feel when it comes to big horsepower performance cars.
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