thedude abides

So I'm looking to upgrade my 2015 981 Boxster S shifter. It's not bad, but feels a bit tall and sloppy compared to other Porsche OEM shifters I've tried out.

The two most common brands I've seen mentioned on this forum and Numeric and the Suncoast product. What are some pros/cons of each brand and are there other brands people have installed and liked?

On a side note, I'll probably not do the install myself.

Cheers,
Joe

tmc

I've had both. The Numeric is a cut above in smoothness, solidity and overall feel.

dav9515

i have an OEM GT4 shifter sitting in my garage waiting for me to install. There is very good feedback on it, OEM part so you know it fits/good quality, and very reasonably priced especially if you find one in the for sale section.

Numeric shifter is i would say best in market, and if i was tracking my car a lot would probably justify the price, but for a street driven car i just couldn't spend that kind of money when the GT4 shifter feels excellent and i picked one up with under 3k miles on it for $100.

I changed my shifter on the 986 and it was extremely easy, will do it on the 981 as well. Process is also very simple and Tommy L has a great step by step video showing how to get it done. don't be intimidated, the center console comes apart like lego's and changing the shifter out is quite easy at that point.

Turboale

I have yet to try the Sun Coast offering but the Numeric setup is really good... Almost gun action good...

Chrismalberts

Quick vote for the OEM GT4/Cayman T short shifter and a definite vote for doing the install yourself. It's really easy, and I don't wrench on my vehicles, but this is all interior trim removal. You won't even get your hands dirty. I'm sure Numeric is a better option but for the price and ease of install the OEM was a no-brainer for me and I wish I'd done it the week after I bought the car instead of waiting a couple of years.

It was such a nice improvement, I did the exact same thing to the GTI I bought as a family driver on 12/31. Bought the OEM VW "euro" shifter assembly and installed that. Totally different but about as easy as the Porsche install.

IndigoInkTaco

GT4 shifter is perfect in my car. No complaints. No experience w/ the numeric. But from everything I've seen you simply have to weigh the cost of each vs the mechanical feel and determine if that's worth it to you. The numeric also has a couple different return springs you can purchase and experiment with.

thedude abides

This is very helpful, I will definitely take a look at the GT4 SSK.

Any advice on swapping out the cables at the same time? My Boxster only has 24k miles on it and I'm sure the cables are fine, just wondering if it makes sense to install a new shifter with old cables or put in new cables. Any difference in feel with new vs old cables?

dav9515

your cables are fine, just pop in the GT4 shifter and go!

Numeric Racing

We would love to talk to you more about our shifter! Give us a call if we can answer any questions you have!

ncster

Went with the Numeric shifter. At first, you wonder if you can live with the tighter shifts, but after a couple of days, you wonder how you ever lived with it. I've been told cables make it even better but I'm happy with just the shifter.

Lawrence H

I just did a Numeric shifter and cables on my 981 CS. Shifter is a piece of cake - literally a 1 hour install. Cables is not hard per se, but there is a lot of interior trim removal and accessing those brackets under the car is a huge PITFA if you don’t have a lift (and still probably a moderate PITFA if you have one). I got it done but man that was an annoying job

thedude abides

Nicely done! When you have some time with the Numeric I'd love to get your impressions.

fuhrius

I'm sorry, I don't do impressions...I'm a Doctor. Couldn't help the classic Airplane reference.

I'm also interested in folk's feedback as I'm looking to swap shifters in my new-to-me BGTS. It's somewhat funny to say this but I wish the shifter in my Porsche felt 1/2 as good as the shifter in my Mustang.

ryanpe

I bought the Suncoast GT4 short shifter and installed it myself with the help of tommylgarage youtube video. I love it. Very easy install and worth it big time. I think the shifter was about $260 from Suncoast. Good luck!

Lawrence H

Here are some initial thoughts after living with it for a few weeks, +1 track day.

So the main reason I wanted to install this short shifter was that when the car was hot on track, I was having a LOT of trouble downshifting into second gear. In hindsight, I must have been slightly putting it into the reverse zone of the shifter, but that detent seemed to be MUCH softer when hot somehow. I wasn't sure if this was a shifter, cable, transmission issue, or driver issue (almost certainly the latter was a huge contributor), but I thought throwing some money at the problem might help.

Installation: as mentioned before, the shifter is a breeze to install. I ended up using the stock cables for a few days, just to test it out. I proceeded with putting the cables in and while it wasn't a hard job per se, as mentioned in a previous post, it was a pretty annoying job on jack stands. I'm sure I could do it much faster now that I know the best angles to work with, but that was a frustrating DIY on stands.

Initial impressions: wow this is short...almost too short and notchy. I ran the shifter with stock cables for a few days just to get the lay of the land, and even with the **** at the highest I could reasonably put it, it did feel rather short. Nevertheless, it was something I thought I could get used to and did feel considerably more positive than stock. MUCH higher precision and feel, but also much higher effort, particularly into reverse - given my suspicions about my 3-2 downshifts, this was just what I needed. I went ahead and proceeded with the cable installation and afterwards. I did grind off the nubs from the brackets, per Numeric's instructions. I surprisingly did feel an increase in shifting initially resistance after cable install...I'm not sure if this was a problem with exactly how I routed them or what. However, it wasn't that bad and I carried on.

On the street: I got used to the notchiness and throw pretty quickly. I think my driving is actually a bit smoother given the shorter throws, particularly 1-2. Reverse does take a bit of muscle to get into, but that's fine.

On the track: super precise engagement, no flex, no misshifts. 3-2 downshifts were perfect. I'll take it!

After a few weeks, either I got used to the increased shifting resistance or the setup broke in a bit, but it does feel a bit more fluid. I did end up driving a friend's 996 with cables and shifter and I will say it felt considerably different than mine. MUCH smoother and MUCH lower resistance. He also noted that there was a bit of a break in period before things smoothed out, so I'm hopeful that things continue to smooth out over time.

TL;DR - short and notchy, maybe too short for my taste, but ZERO flex and super precise feel. There may be a bit of a break in period and feel may change over time. I dig it overall.