WHATS THE BEST SHIFTER OUY THERE.

I AM LOOKING FOR THE BEST SHIFTER OUT THERE ,AND MAYBE ONE THAT KEEPS AN OLD STYLE LOOK.ANY SUGGESTIONS.

Blake-

An original-looking shifter that shifts like an EMPI Hurst-copy is the holy grail.

In the end, you'll settle for a shifter that looks original, or one that just plain works great, but looks like a refuge from a '68 Camaro. I've done both-- I've got an EMPI (with a custom leather boot, and an AL handle) in my car now. I'm in love, but I just don't look at it.

The most elegant solution would be to get one of these:

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C38%2DI%2D268

Cut the flat steal handle off as low as possible and weld on a stock early Beetle shaft.

Cover with a nice lace-on boot from say Vintage that matches your seats/dash/door panels and fit a sweet stock ivory early Beetle knob.

Precision AND vintage looks.

Otherwise, almost any after market shifter will do the job. They're all pretty much alike in performance, they just look different. Some less offensive than others, but none of 'em anywhere near "stock" in appearance.

The best FEELING shifter I've experienced is the Gene Berg in Gordon Nichols' car, but it doesn't look anything like the original. CSP out of Germany has what appears to be a similar design, but it's available with a knob instead of a T-handle, and would look more original. Does anybody have any experience with CSP? I'm interested in one of theirs, but would like to hear a bit more about it first.

It isn't having a ball or tee-handle or "Mushroom" on top which makes it feel better (OK, so everyone thinks the shift ball will feel better, but I've found the Berg Tee to feel more natural, and I always like the feel of the old Mushroom, 'cause you could slip your fingers under it with your thumb on top to shift).

It's how it's made and put together AND having new/nearly new couplers and bushings along the line.

I like my Berg. Expensive....YES, but it is made of really strong metal, then machined to very close tolerances, meaning the lever assembly itself has no sloppy feel to it. Then I went with a new, neoprene coupler, a new tunnel bushing and a nylon bushing in the shift rod cup below the shifter (found out too late that the rod cup was worn). Put all that together and it feels like a Ford Top-loader - it clicks from gear to gear and is precise, rather than many others I've driven where third gear is "somewhere over there>". With my Berg, you can actually feel the transmision actuator lever engaging, and feel the synchro rings spinning up.

Best thing to do is go to a Speedster gathering and try out a bunch of different shifters (as Lane has done) and get the one You like best. What you like isn't necessarily what someone else likes, and BTW, None of those we've talked about look or feel like an original pre-1960 Porsche shifter, which was more like an original VW Beetle lever. They were vastly improved around 1960 or so - beefier, gently curved and nicer looking and feeling, but were still a little sloppy even then.

Do a search on "shifter", there's a TON of information buried here. After I did that I ordered an EMPI trigger shifter, as a lot of other speedsterowners have done before me. If you want to camouflage it a little, you can get a rosewood ball knob from Cip1 or an ivory knob from Flameball. If you want a boot, Vintage can make a custom one to fit the trigger shifter, just email them.

The stock Type 1 shifter looks a lot like the 356, and the $2 rubber boot is identical. You could always just use that and add a "shift improvement kit"; if my car had an otherwise authentic interior that's probably what I would use.

Stephen brings up a good point: Stock shifters (either Beetle or original Porsche) had really long throws, meaning that the shift ball/mushroom distance between 2'nd gear and 3'rd gear can sometimes be a foot or more!!

So-called "short-throw" shifters generally reduce that distance by between 40% and 60% by moving the shift lever pivot point up an inche or two, thereby lengthening the shift lever below the pivot point, and requiring less movement of the shifter and your hand to move the transmission rod the same amount as before.

Most people like short throw shifters once they quickly get used to them.

BTW: If you look at Cory Drake's latest photos (paininthebug), he has one shot (062207 shifter.JPG) of what looks like a '64-ish Porsche shift lever in a coupe - nice, elegant shape, and really beefier than the 356A/Beetle style shift lever.

I drove an EMPI shifter in an IM at Carlisle '05, and had a heck of a time finding the gears. It didn't feel as good as my current stock setup. Gordon's shifter in Pearl was very precise and had no lost motion. That's what I'm looking for, but in something that looks a little more classic. Don't get me wrong, I think the Berg looks nice, and you can get "Speedster" engraved on the handle, but I do think it looks more at home in a wide-body than a classic body.

I wonder what it would take to convert a 356B/C classic shift lever to a Beetle base (which is what we all use)?? That look is classic (see Cory's pic) and they are tighter than most VW shiftrs out there.

TC! Any ideas?

Geme Berg. No debate, no question. Get the short bent shaft.

X2 on what Jack said although it won't look like an original one it will definitely work a lot better and last for many many years. You can't go wrong with Berg's quality.

Gordon, the first one's the one you're talking about. It's in what remains of the '64 B coupe in Annapolis; it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to heat a straight VeeDub shifter to red-hot and bend it to an angle like this one, but this guy's pretty long to start with. The difficulty in getting one of these to work is probably the diameter of the ball and cup under the tunnel -- and that spring is probably different, too.
Blake, as far as shifter "feel," Danny Pipperato (sp?) has an excellent shifter assembly in his Spyder. His transaxle points in the other direction, though, and his lever is connected differently and in an exposed box above the metal in his car:
http://www.spyderowners.com/files/thmblist.asp?sf=/DannyP
The second photo below is what I've got in the Sloppy Jalopy. (The pile of photos in my file might make it a long wait to load these up.):

Here's a photo of my Gene Berg short shifter. It had the lock-in-reverse option.

I have the shifter/housing from the C along with the shift rod somewhere in the cellar. I'll did them out and take a look. Too bad reverse is left and forward on a 356, otherwise it would be a snap to use the C shifter and a front section of the shift rod and just weld it to the rear of a VW rod.

Another option is to get a type III shifter out of a square back. They are shorter and chrome. I think they look pretty original, and they are good shifters. But, for about $300 you can have the end all best, a Gene Berg.

Yeah , but that lever... it ought to say "Keep On Truckin" instead of PORSCHE.

Bwaaa Haaaa Haaaa HAAAaaaaa! In the spirit of poking fun at each other - Good one!

I know they are really nice, and everybody who has one or has tried one swears by it. I think if I had a killer motor, suspension, brakes, etc., then I would want one too.

BWAAA HAAAAAA HAAAA...what? Wait a minute - oh yeah, I would like one also.

With a nice shifter like that I could probably shave a few seconds off my 0-60 time of 15 seconds. LOL