Short Shifters - $150-$700 Are they the same?
 

After doing my first PCA Auto-X i am in the market for a few upgrades. One of which is a short-shifter. Upon looking at my normal parts website, I see that they range in price from $149-$700. Has anyone tried the low end Schnell Shifter? Is it worth it to pay a little more for mid-range B&M, or should i go for the $700 Porsche one? Would it really make that much of a difference to spend an additional $550 for the high end one?

Note - For Auto-X i only shift 1x per lap, from 1st to 2nd. But i want to do DE & other events too, from which I would get more use out of it.

thanks!

Tex

:troll:

I bough the one on Ebay for $60. Shifts great

I've got a Schnell that's lasted 8 years, 127,000+ miles, and two cars. For AX a good shifter is nice...a missed shift can be the difference between 1st and waaaaay down the list. If you want to spend $$$, here's the best: Quality Racing Products
By the way, take care of getting good tires before anything else. Nitto NT01 works for me.

thanks for the feedback. it looks like there are some good deals on ebay 914. i'll have to look there for a schnell at a reduced price, or maybe go with a $50/$60 one. The link to the racing products had some nice stuff! thanks for sharing j.fro. i can see some potential future upgrades there!

I went through two versions of the cheap ones in my daily driver. They are great off the bat, but they loosen up pretty quickly and get sloppy. The bearing inside, assembly hardware, and machining tolerance on the pivot assembly are inferior.

I originally scoffed at spending $300 on a B&M with these $50 options available, but I ended up buying a used B&M. It certainly feels more solid and I'll expect it to last forever.

I dont have a comparison for the schnell though, I went right from the cheapie to a B&M.

I also saw the cheaper ones advertised but thought of the old adage "You get what you pay for". I went with the B&M and love how positive the shifts feel.

B&m short shifter
 

I just purchased a B&M short shifter kit from "Bumperplugs" for about $250 including shipping. The installation was pretty straightforward with the biggest issue being when I dropped those little screws down inside the console while I was putting it all back together (I got really good at removing/installing the console! :roll eyes: ).

The short shifter eliminated the slop in my 2003 Boxster Basic's (51,000 miles) linkage and makes the car feel all that much "newer". I may not be racing my car, but it definitely feels "tighter" each time I drive it!
:cheers:

Bought a $50 eBay knockoff and have never had a problem. Shifts nice and smooth with a positive "click" feel when shifting into gear. Huge improvement in throw and enjoyment over the original Porsche part. That was 2 years and probably 30k miles or so ago. U definitely get what u pay for but modern manufacturing has generally gotten pretty good. Plus I figured I'd throw the $50 at it to see what it looks like before wasting the cost of a new set of tires on something that spends 30 sec on a cnc machine and then gets slapped with a ridiculous markup because it's going on a Porsche. The same component that's the same basic size, shape, and cost to manufacture only costs $25 for a Honda so I figure a 100% Porsche tax is still a pretty good mark up for the manufacturers.

I just bought the 997 OEM shifter upgrade for $249 at Suncoast.

997 Shift Console Upgrade:Porsche Parts & Porsche Accessories - Wholesale Porsche Parts & Tequipment

I had no complaints with the Agency Power SSK that was in my 986 for a short spell. I removed it because I sold the car. Checkout the FS section for details if you're interested.

I'll sell a cheap short shifter with the 9x6 shift mechanism for 30$+ shipping if anyone is interested. I replaced it with a 997 shifter.

This provides the best balance of them all. Short shifters requires too much shifting effort and increases the chance of mis-shift.

GT3s don't even come with short shifters.

B & M for me for 10+ years on the Boxster and some of my other vehicles...it is a superior product!

Never missed a shift at the track and on the street. And it still feels like the first day I installed it, crisp and just right!