Final Answer .........
 

First, I have learned more off of this forum than any magazine or article I have ever read. Second, some of the answers tend to be scatterbrained and opinionated ........... enough about my wife. lol

Seriously, I would like to get a general consensus about the short throw shifers. macdaddyslomo claimed they mess up your tranny and that the mp3 shifter is the way to go. Most people seem to have the kartboy bushings so I feel that is a good way to go. Any help here would be nice. topher said you were gettin' the mp3. Have you had it installed yet? Just want to try and clear things up before making the purchase.

See ya.

Welcome,

There are 3 main types, B&M, TMW and Kartboy has their own.

I am the B&M as do most people, I know another personally who has the Kartboy one and loves it.

They are all good, I think it boils down to preference. Try to find someone who has one and try it. I like the B&M, no issues. I tried the Kartboy but found it a bit to low for my arm.

Defintely get the Kartboy Bushing. If you by the Kartboy Shifter they have a deal for BOTH.

I pretty sure all require some bending of the heat shield to make room for the bottom of the shifter, it sits lower than the normal one.

Can't really comment about gear wear or whether it's good or not. I put mine on with less than 10K on the odo and have 50K now and have had no issues.

You might also change the tranny fluid to Redline or some synthetic fluid. I found that made a huge difference in shifting as well.

HTH

Thanks for the info and advice. Is it a hassle to bend the heat shield? I'm fairly handy so I'd be attempting it myself. Do you need to do the heat shield with the mp3 shifter. Does anyone know if the Mazda 3 shifter would work in a 03 P5? It had a nice short throw when I test drove one.

CK

The heat shield is easy to bend. Not sure about the MP3 shifter, no seen or heard of one done.

The Mazda 3 shifter would probably more expensive than the others even if it did fit.

i have the kartboy shifter & bushings and even with the extra abuse my car has seen on the track, i have not experienced any problems with it *knocks on wood*

not sure on this, but I thought I say on y=the forum that switching to a short throw shifter meant that you shoud be shifting with more finesse, so you don't mess up the gear syncros in the transmission.

no, all it does is help u shift faster and the throw is shortened. right now, i dont hav a short shifter but i plan to get one in the near future