Hello, I am looking for shifter recommendations for a race application. What does everybody use? What do you like or dislike about what you have? Hurst Quarter Stick, TCI, Cheetah, B&M Pro Stick, Bandit, Precision Performance? I have a T-400 with a reverse manual valve body. (Moderator, I wasn't sure if this needed to be in the Juice Box section or here since it's race related. Feel free to move if this is wrong.) Thanks in advance for the ideas and thoughts! Philip T.
Precision, and Cheetah are tops IMO BM Pro Ratchet is a good one also, I don't care for Quarter sticks and the like
I had the pro stick with a auto shifter attached running rev manual valve body and it was ok. Not as reliable as Id have liked. Went to a Cheetah last yr. Only put a few passes on the car since. Seems ok. Have the B&M and the shifter for sale.
This is in Ricks old Regal, and there is a Cheetah in there now. For some reason, I'm just not comfortable with the 1-2 shift. It seems like the shifter can just fall from one to two. Three has a nice gate that forces you to go over and down. There's not a distinctive difference between neutral and one, other than the trans is in gear. There is no "click" or anything to differentiate actually between N, 1 or 2. Maybe it's something I can get use to. Everything I've ever raced has been a stock shifter on the column, or the stock console shifter in a Grand National. After looking at a lot of opinions and ideas and recommendations, I ordered a Precision Performance Products Kwik- Shift I Power Shift. I picked the pattern that puts Park at my hip, and R, N, 1, 2, and 3 are all selected by pushing toward the dash. Again, I'm used to stock, so anything will involve a learning curve. But I want to be positive about my current gear, and comfortable with the process.
I installed an altronic shift system last year, I like it. Shifts by rpm.( or you could set it to shift by time after trigger ( No shifter on the floor. Just an easy to use control panel with 3 buttons. Never miss another shift again, and since I am normally the slower car it sure is nice to be able to start looking for the other car right after launch as compaired to after the 2/3 shift. This was a huge bonus in 1/8th mile races seeing that shift comes about 150 ft before the finish line
That's one of the nice things about the Precision Performance shifter, it's fully upgradeable to air shift. Just order the kit and it comes with the air cylinder, CO2 tank and everything you need to hook it up. I'll try it manually first, to try to get used to it and see how consistent I am. And if necessary, upgrade it later!
Everybody likes what they like, but I went from a Quarterstick (which I always disliked) to a Cheetah over 20 years ago and I love it. My 2 cents.
That's true. When I got the car from Rick, we talked about the shifter and he said since I was used to column shift I should have no problem getting used to the Cheetah. I may have put a bad taste in my mouth because of something I did. On my first license pass, after staging, I left my right hand on the shifter....you can probably guess what happened next! As soon as the second yellow lit up I let off the brake and mashed the pedal to the floor....and promptly shifted in to second on the launch. Needless to say, that is not the best way to extract the most speed from first gear. Even launching with both hands on the steering wheel after that, things just never seemed to get much better. So yeah, maybe I am using the shifter as a scape goat. Either way, the Precision Kwik Shift should be here Thursday.
My car has been column shift in the 10 seconds for 20 years now, first time using the full electric altronic shift system felt very weird in the car, not shifting at all the entire pass. But what freedom to notice so much more. Especially in the 1/8 mile when I don't have thst extra 660 feet to locate cars. Now if I can just get used to judging the 1/8th mile stripe with cars covering twice the closing distance in half the time.
That's why I like automatic valve body. Leave in 2 let the 1-2 happen and then shift the 2-3. Makes car more consistent than manual shifting that 1-2. 1-2 happens very quickly as you are finding out Phil......
The ACD controlled CO2 shifted Turbo Action (Cheetah) SCS shifter. It worked flawlessly with spot on hands free shifting on our 6 second turbo car. http://acddragparts.com/1401.html
My 70 Stage 2 headed GS has 3:73 gears, and yes, the 1-2 shift happens a lot quicker with 4:11 gears. Maybe not quite as quick as my first pass...
We run 4.11, 4.30, 4.56, and in the 1/8th 5.13. All were column shift. My car is still full interior with bench seat so no room for floor shifter. Altronic can set their system up fir any shift pattern. Mine is full manual I used to let it make the 1-2 shift on its own, but if the tires chatter and you need that extra 500 rpms to make it up hard to do with the shifter in 2. Then when we went to trans brake, that changed everything. Took awhile to find a vb that had a brake and forward shift to work with the column
I've got a B&M Magnum Pro Stick in my Mustang, and I love it. I like the shift handle better than the round knob on the regular Quarter Stick and Pro Stick. Once you get used to it, you can get into reverse one handed, and I drive my car on the street quite a bit, so that's a plus for me.
The Precision shifter is probably the best one out there but at the time I was looking for a shifter they did not have a standard pattern for pg that could be solenoid shifted although they had it on air. The last thing I wanted was to monitor another bottle pressure. I went with the pro bandit and I do like it.
Most co2 shifter run an most of season on a fill up when regulated properly from ppl a talk to. So not sure how filling once a year is hard. For me with out the space for the floor shifter it was no choice. But if your 400 into a shifter and 300 to 400 in an air kit the full electric system made since in total price.
I didn't say it was hard. I said it is something else to take care of. Plus the weight of another bottle. At the time I was racing x275 and I was overweight with ballast. Being a two person team it is alot of work between rounds. One less thing on the checklist.
