Short Shifter Retrofit - REVIEW
Yesterday i retrofitted the short shifter.
My review and personal opinion is.
The short shift is very very smooth.Allows quicker gear changes with precision and a very sporting feel.Helps a lot the communication channel between car and driver.
It is short,but not suprisingly short.BUT THATS A VERY SUBJECTIVE ISSUE.
To me it was a very useful add in the car. I will say that i would expect it to be even shorter.
But dont misunderstand this statement.
It is not long,or better it is not, that it isnt short enough,but after owning other cars also equipped with
short shifter,i will say that i have also cooperate with such shifter distance.
In other words i would mind if it was a little shorter.I dont know though if it would be convinient.
To tell you the truth,since i put my hands on the 997,something was missing to me,something was not okey,a little loosy maybe. Now i found what this was.The short shifter.I ve been driving almost 10 years now cars with short shifters and the stock gear was very strange to me .I felt i was driving a limousine or a ford.
I am very impresed with the fact that this short shift is very accurate and does not require too much effort. It changes are smooth accurate and right to the bone.
I even got over that problem i had with second gear (stock shifter) where it was an unconvinient feeling i felt everytime i launched that gear.
After reading posts from other people that had problems with the second gear,i started to search what was wrong,after i got reassured by the dealer that my car not only did not have a problem but it also had a very smooth gear break-in.
What irritated me was that,when selecting second gear,altough the traveling was a little easy and very very smoth at the middle of the travel distance of the gear shift i felt something harder in the way.I hope i am explaining well. With the short shifter addition all travels require a little more effort as it is more stiff and race oriented.With this modification all the gear travel has become harder but very accurate,so now when selecting second gear i dont come acrross that stifness in the middle of the travel distance,but instead i feel in my hand the whole travel to be stiff and accurate knowing that the gear is going to be lauched quickly and accurately without any mistakes.
Another fact that is well improved is the launching of fifth gear.When driving hard and reaching red territory in fourth gear i was nervous going up to fifth because the gear travel was big and i was afraid of miselecting third.Sometimes i even went directly to sixth just to be sure i wont brake the engine.
Now fifth is so short that i know it will be launched correctly.It s not only shorter gear travel but also the stifness that insires you to select the other gear.
Furthermore,gear changing is more easy even in traffic as the travelling has become shorter and thus more easy to do.
IMPORTANT:
The most amazing stuff i ve noticed is guess what!
-In the tequipment brochure it states clearly:
Be warned short shifter can be difficult to operate when the car is cold and thus not easy to select the gears 1st and 2nd .-
Well its my review and listen to this.
When the car is cold the gear change is 5 times smoother than the original gear shift!!
I was impressed twice in the morning when i started my car. Gears were launched so easy that is was simular to the stock after beeing well warmed.
KEEP IN MIND also that i only have the short shifter on for 2 days.That means that as an accesory,needs it time to be used,meaning that after some time it will get even smoother and sweet to use as its parts will start to grow along with the others.
I must say however that,even my dealer told me that the short shift in my car,was much more smoother than in 2 other 997 he had drove with short shift.
So this could be due to the fact that i already have now 5000km instead of the other cars that had 1500 and 2300 respectively.
So smootheness is also related to the mileage that the car has already done.
It might be also the case that in one car the gear shift had been breaked-in more smoothly than in another car.
I higlhy recomend this option,but if you didnt own a car in the past with short shift ,you better try it first because it is truly a matter of personal preference.
Thats all for now, and as you figured out probably i have no misadvantages to report!
My review and personal opinion is.
The short shift is very very smooth.Allows quicker gear changes with precision and a very sporting feel.Helps a lot the communication channel between car and driver.
It is short,but not suprisingly short.BUT THATS A VERY SUBJECTIVE ISSUE.
To me it was a very useful add in the car. I will say that i would expect it to be even shorter.
But dont misunderstand this statement.
It is not long,or better it is not, that it isnt short enough,but after owning other cars also equipped with
short shifter,i will say that i have also cooperate with such shifter distance.
In other words i would mind if it was a little shorter.I dont know though if it would be convinient.
To tell you the truth,since i put my hands on the 997,something was missing to me,something was not okey,a little loosy maybe. Now i found what this was.The short shifter.I ve been driving almost 10 years now cars with short shifters and the stock gear was very strange to me .I felt i was driving a limousine or a ford.
I am very impresed with the fact that this short shift is very accurate and does not require too much effort. It changes are smooth accurate and right to the bone.
I even got over that problem i had with second gear (stock shifter) where it was an unconvinient feeling i felt everytime i launched that gear.
After reading posts from other people that had problems with the second gear,i started to search what was wrong,after i got reassured by the dealer that my car not only did not have a problem but it also had a very smooth gear break-in.
What irritated me was that,when selecting second gear,altough the traveling was a little easy and very very smoth at the middle of the travel distance of the gear shift i felt something harder in the way.I hope i am explaining well. With the short shifter addition all travels require a little more effort as it is more stiff and race oriented.With this modification all the gear travel has become harder but very accurate,so now when selecting second gear i dont come acrross that stifness in the middle of the travel distance,but instead i feel in my hand the whole travel to be stiff and accurate knowing that the gear is going to be lauched quickly and accurately without any mistakes.
Another fact that is well improved is the launching of fifth gear.When driving hard and reaching red territory in fourth gear i was nervous going up to fifth because the gear travel was big and i was afraid of miselecting third.Sometimes i even went directly to sixth just to be sure i wont brake the engine.
Now fifth is so short that i know it will be launched correctly.It s not only shorter gear travel but also the stifness that insires you to select the other gear.
Furthermore,gear changing is more easy even in traffic as the travelling has become shorter and thus more easy to do.
IMPORTANT:
The most amazing stuff i ve noticed is guess what!
-In the tequipment brochure it states clearly:
Be warned short shifter can be difficult to operate when the car is cold and thus not easy to select the gears 1st and 2nd .-
Well its my review and listen to this.
When the car is cold the gear change is 5 times smoother than the original gear shift!!
I was impressed twice in the morning when i started my car. Gears were launched so easy that is was simular to the stock after beeing well warmed.
KEEP IN MIND also that i only have the short shifter on for 2 days.That means that as an accesory,needs it time to be used,meaning that after some time it will get even smoother and sweet to use as its parts will start to grow along with the others.
I must say however that,even my dealer told me that the short shift in my car,was much more smoother than in 2 other 997 he had drove with short shift.
So this could be due to the fact that i already have now 5000km instead of the other cars that had 1500 and 2300 respectively.
So smootheness is also related to the mileage that the car has already done.
It might be also the case that in one car the gear shift had been breaked-in more smoothly than in another car.
I higlhy recomend this option,but if you didnt own a car in the past with short shift ,you better try it first because it is truly a matter of personal preference.
Thats all for now, and as you figured out probably i have no misadvantages to report!
