When Porsche came up with the short shift kits, their cars were going mainstream, and this was a way to appease the people coming to the breed from other brands, and give them the shorter throw they expected. They also offered them on new cars to people with assumedly larger wallets than most. I'm not sure that Porsche put short shifters on race cars...Peter or Steve can probably weigh in on that.

Fast forward 20+ years, many miles/shifts-maybe with heavy hands and not the proper technique (who knows what PO's did to our cars?), and the fact that parts are expensive and a proper rebuild is north of $3000-3500, and it just isn't worth the extra stress on a trans, IMO. While I've been dumb enough to rebuild my engine and dump $18K into it to gain 50HP, (I don't regret that and it is on par with the airplane I built a few years back in sense of pride for me) I will never have the nerve to open a trans. Mine has 140K on it, and shifts great. I've got untold track days, and with the exception of my infamous missed shift at MSR in '07, it always did well. IF I'd only bought a Seine, Rennshift or Wevo gizmo prior to that, I'd be $18K wealthier, albeit a bit down on HP and have a few oil leaks.

Hence my emphasis on a device to detent in the 3-4 gear plane. That is worth it's weight in gold, and a must for any 911 driven briskly. The short shift is simply personal preference-with some risk.

 

I dont think they installed the short shift on the 908's as they stick was oriented differently, however after examining some pictures of the cockpit it appears that the radius form the pivot to the shift shaft is very small, I was just curious if any one had a rough estimate of how many less miles it puts on the trans. I did not end up installing one a while back for this very fear.

 

I'm pretty sure everything was torn down and at least inspected if not redone for each race. You don't spend hours running around the island of Sicily or Sebring, Le Mans or Daytona and leave anything to chance.

 

The Wevo billet shifter is well engineered, well crafted, and functions exquisitely, as all high quality products should. As I mentioned, they do have a more frequent service interval, and that is a tradeoff that I can live with (over 250 K so far).

 

I'd put the Rennshift on that level too, he's done a really nice job with it.

 

Yes, it's beautiful. I have not tried one personally though.

 

Thanks and agreed. The extra peanuts on the small items solved my issues and the kit satisfied my desire for shorter throws!

 

I put a factory short shift on my 1978 limited slip trans, installed in a 1972 "RS" with a 3.2. The trans was rebuilt when I did the build in 1990/91. I tracked the car about 10 times a season for the first three years and 5 or 6 times a season for the next 14 years. I used one clutch, one new set of axles, and many gallons of trans fluid. The trans shifted fine when I sold the car. It had 32xxx miles on it, about 10k street miles.

 

I believe the factory SS kit was introduced PRIMARILY for the convenience of shorter folk - it prevents the shift lever from fighting for space with the seat squab when the driver seat is in the extreme forward positions. Also it differs from most SS kits in that it only changes the fulcrum position in the fore-aft plane, so while fore-aft movements are reduced, the side-to-side movement and travel is essentially unaffected, preventing the potential missed-shift ills of the narrow gate pattern most aftermarket SS kits provide.

I've used the OEM SS for over 10 years (≈150k) and added a Seine gate shift kit shortly after, and I love the combo, the latter mainly for the spring bias that keeps the lever in the 3-4 plane when in neutral. Not up to G50 standards, but I don't remember missing a shift since, unlike the three prior years without these mods.

Adding Wevo gate shift to 915 this month during the engine swap, and will remove Seine gate tabs from shift tower but keep spring bias parts, see how that works for a while...

IMO these types of mods improve the shifter over stock, provided it is not done thinking it will enable faster, but more confident and certain shifts.

Agree with Ed re new bushing and careful adjustment... re that, maybe the Wevo gate in the 915 might make coupler adjustment a bit less foul-language inducing...