Built 7AT or ZF8 Conversion

shadow85

It's time for me to address my sluggish feeling 7AT, so either building the 7AT, or going all out for a full ZF 8HP transmission swap!

These days DCT and ZF swaps are becoming more and more common on many platforms due to the availability of good standalone transmission controller support and adaptor kits for them. So I have been heavily researching into and getting interested in doing a ZF 8HP75 (2nd gen) swap into my TT Z. Seb of SpecialtyZ has done a Getrag BMW DCT conversion on his own Z with great success from what I hear. A couple of guys in Europe have done this kind of thing aswell, some have done the DCT swap and some have done a ZF swap on their 370Z with success over in Europe. So it's definitely possible. However after adding up the costs involved, trans itself, adaptor kits, mounts, driveshafts, shifter, yokes, controller, plus controller wiring etc etc, I will be looking very well near at or over $15K AUD to do. That will be over or close to 2x the price of what it will cost me to build the 7AT down here in Australia ($7K AUD) with upgraded Valve Body and TQ converter.

So my real question is, how does a built 7AT with upgraded VB feel and perform in terms of responsiveness and shift speeds? Does it feel smooth and fast, is it much better than a stock 7AT? Because my current 7AT feel like a dinosaur, sluggish, old, and slow to reapond. So I want to either build it, or fancy the idea of a ZF8 (2nd gen) swap, the former will save me alot of coin, the latter would cost nearly double, but would be very cool and still super unique.

So what do you guys think? Be bald and daring and go for a ZF swap, or will a fully built 7AT perform just as fast?