Chuck Schreiber

Herman K from Houston came up today for our DFW get together and since he's been telling me how great his Lizard Shifting 928 is and bugging me to drive it, I thought I'd at least oblige him.

I have to say that the shifter is awesome!!
I can't think there's another car on the road today (paddle shifters excluded)that has a shorter throw than this car!

The gears are nice and tight, very short throw and solid as a rock in each gear.
You put it in any gear and you could feel very little (if any) play left to right or front to back. I'll say that effort to put into each gear is slightly higher, but I literally got used to this after driving his car a couple of miles.

It just feels solid, not too mechanical. I really wondered if there would be enough gear separation to be able to find what gear I was in, but it was simple to operate and easy to get used to. The best way I can describe it is It's literally a flick of the wrist with a little more effort.

I got back in the my GTS and it felt like I was "rowing" through the gears.
(My car has a short throw shifter, solid rear coulpler bushings, and a pretty worn front ball cup) I'd say that if I fix the front ball cup on my car, the throw should get a little shorter, but it won't be near as short as Herman's.

Herman, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you said you replaced the rear coupler bushings with the stock phenolic bushings right??

So now I have a dilema. Do I just replace the front ball cup and be done with it, or do I go full bore and go with the Lizard Shifter??? It would be easier to just do the ball cup, but man, I really liked the way that thing shifted!!!

After I got out of the car the quote that Don Carter has in his sig kept ringing in my head:

"this is a he-man car, it's a brute, it's the kind of thing that would just go out and eat a tractor, for fun..." - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear

The shifter makes the car seem a little more like Clarkson describes.

I'm diggin it!!

Jim M.

To quote Herman while you were out test driving it; "The shifter is so fast that the drive from Houston used to be 3 hours, but now it's 2.5 hours."

RKD in OKC

Okay, I'll bite. What's a Lizard Shifter, and where do you get it.

Randy V

I think it's a gecko, not a lizard.

Champagne

I have seats on the books for Herman. I'll throw in an actual lizard **** if he wants

Paul

hacker-pschorr

Lizard interior......me likely.

I say do it, 5-speed GTS with that shifter? Sounds like automotive nirvana.

Don Carter

Thanks for the shout out Chuck! I do love that quote and Top Gear!

I drove Herman's car in December when he was helping me with the MM's. It was a short drive in the neighborhood and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I have nothing to compare it with as it was the first stick 928 I have ever driven... so now I need to drive your's Chuck so I can compare!

tveltman

I'm afraid I still don't get what a lizard shifter is...Perhaps I was dropped as a child.

jmrjames

I want to use this thread and thank Herman again for helping me out. GREAT Man !!!!!!!

JWise

RKD, tveltman, see here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...nned-mods.html

Chuck Schreiber

As a side note.

You can use 2 different types of rear coupler bushings with this shifter.
I have the brass bushings in right now and it definately gives you more of a "connected" mechanical feel to the shifter. I talked to Herman on his way home to Houston and he mentioned he had brand new phenolic bushings "stock" in the rear. After driving Herman's car, I think the stock bushings "take the edge off" the connected feeling a bit. I would also do Carl's mod listed here
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...fter-slop.html
to take any additional fore/aft play out.

Been thinking about this mod all day after I drove the car.
Think I'm putting it on the list!

jmrjames

I told my wife about Herman's lizard and she said "Men ! Never happy with what they have"

RKD in OKC

I am definitely going to have to do this. I've been missing shifts at the autocross and blaming it on the long shifter throws.

Lizard928

You guys are too much!

Glad you all are enjoying it down there.

Everytime someone up here tries my car they are amazed as to how nice it is compaired to stock as well.

I havent tried any with the solid bushings yet as all of my cars have the stock bushings. I still need to put them in and try it. So I cannot comment as to how much noise they may transmit.

There are a few people who have them on their cars.
And Roger is the place to get them right now.

But be forwarned it is much more direct than the stock shifter!!!

slate blue

I'll probably get one of these shifters, at least give it a go, very fairly priced and the reviews have been quite positive. The one thing about quick shifting is the wear on the syncros, what I discovered when I was looking at putting a Ferrari 6 speed transaxle into my car was when Ferrari went to paddle shift they upgraded the gearbox internals. That is the external gearbox was the same but they had triple cone syncros versus double cone. That got the auto change down to a 1/4 of a second and now I think with the 599 they are at a tenth of a second and it is basically the same gearbox.

So basically what I am saying is quick shifting from gear to gear, the box will probably wear a little quicker but if you do it occasionally and have good synthetic oil the damage will probably be minimal. Short normal shifts, what is wrong with that?

Greg