Fitted a new SportShifter to my JHM short-shifter - perfect shifter setup?

[ven0m]

I recently came in contact with the Dutch company SportShifter, I found their shifters a real piece of eye-candy and asked them for a one-off build (prototype) to fit over the JHM short shifter which I already had fitted previously to my car.

Long story short








Long story long;
The company already made a lovely kit for the b7 platform for the standard shifters, but since the JHM has completely different measurements and I personally wanted to keep the OEM look as much as possible (a part from the initial kit was not to my liking) we had to start from scratch and the company went a GREAT LENGTH to adapt their kit to my wishes. From start till finish we had a perfect communication flow!


Planning

From their side I requested a bit longer boot, to be able to integrate it into the OEM boot frame of the RS4 as I skipped on their custom boot frame, keeping the looks OEM+.

From my side they requested a few measurements of the shifter assembly.




Package

And (just) a week later this package arrived at my doorstep.





It was simply well machined!





They were kind enough to include two shifter cores for me to test. (conclusion on weight below)






Assembly

Assembly was pretty darn easy. 4 bolts in total. 2 for the knob-core and 2 for clamping the knob to the shaft.



Only the boot was a bit tricky to get right. First I had to disassemble the OEM boot.





The staples are very shallow and can be easily pulled out with normal pliers.





I got a 10$ stapler, 4$ of staples and a 15$ leather puncher. I never worked with leather before and I exchanged the OEM boot with the Alcantara boot in 10min.




Final look










Conclusion

Wooden core - about 100g
Metal core - about 900g (by feel - I'll measure it when I get the chance)

The guys were kind enough to already tell me upfront that the heavy knob is well suited for daily driving and I later figured out for myself why. The throws "fall" into gear much easier. The thing is small, compact and heavy as hell! I really like the heavy core.

For the light one, they told me it's more suited for spirited driving and track use and boy were they right! The light core is in another ball park. The feedback from the 0A3 transmission is phenomenal. When you put it into gear and engage the clutch, if you still have your hand on the knob you can actually feel the response from the drive-train, how the rear tyres dig-in when you accelerate. It's simply poetry! I fell in love with the wooden-core shifter instantly.

All in all, money well spent! And the entire process of making it happen and fitting a one-off custom shifter was just an awesome experience.

[sandspeed]

That's a gorgeous setup man. I assume they can whip up another one based on your specs?

[chucklando]

Looks incredible. For being an after-market piece it fits very well with your interior, which is also spot on. I've always preferred carbon trim over aluminum, but I think you got it right.

[Mr Hyde]

That looks awesome. Really nice quality and you did a great job with the review. In the end, I couldn't tell which knob you are going to use as your daily. Which one is it?

I have a general question for everyone regarding the weighted knobs. I've heard and read that you shouldn't even rest your hand on the shift knob due to synchro wear, but what about these knobs? Any wear issues due to the constant weight of the knob?

[Seattle squash]

Thanks for sharing on here, after my brief pre-view. Looks amazing and pretty interested if your Dutch colleagues can replicate the setup. Nice writeup as always and can't wait to see your writeup/review after you get all the O34 suspension parts on the car. Well done Ven0m!

[docurley]

Great write-up and a lovely bit of kit, would be intresting to see what other options they have.

[ven0m]

Thank you everybody! I try to keep a clean contrast with my interior (black/silver) and the moment I saw the shifter I knew how it would fit. At the end it only surpassed my expectations.

Roy has my measurements and for sure he can make more. You can give him a shout out at [email protected]. He's a straight up guy, he gave a lot of input when I first came with the idea for the custom fit and also took note of my own wishes. I think right now he's at the Essen Motor Show or getting ready for it, take that into account if he doesn't answer straight away.

Here you can see how they make their products, quite a nice video



They have all their Audi products for our platforms displayed on their webpage http://www.sportshifters.com/products/audi/

In the end, I couldn't tell which knob you are going to use as your daily. Which one is it?

I have a general question for everyone regarding the weighted knobs. I've heard and read that you shouldn't even rest your hand on the shift knob due to synchro wear, but what about these knobs? Any wear issues due to the constant weight of the knob?

If I drove my car every day, I would use the heavy knob and switch over to the light one on nice sunny weekends and track events. But I'm mostly not home, so when I get to drive my car, I make the best of it and I'll just leave the light knob on for those few days. My personal preference. (I used the heavy Derlind knob from JHM for the past 20k km)

Don't rest your hand on the knob. What I explained about the knob feedback and the tyres digging-in is what I noticed in that moment after shifting and before putting my hand back on the steering-wheel. Only move your hand from the steering wheel to change gears, then always put it back.
For a weighted knob you mostly have to take into account only the downwards force (gravity), which puts the weight only on the leaver bearing itself. And in the case of the JHM short shifter I use, that is a massive strong spherical joint. After that only two rods stretch forward acting as a pivot towards the transmission case.
But if you rest your hand on the knob, you also have take into account that your hand adds weight in all directions when your body/shoulders/arms move about. This puts force OVER the bearing onto the pivot leavers and consequently into the transmission.

Some pictures when I did the JHM short shifter install for easier imagination:

Thanks for sharing on here, after my brief pre-view. Looks amazing and pretty interested if your Dutch colleagues can replicate the setup. Nice write-up as always and can't wait to see your write-up/review after you get all the O34 suspension parts on the car. Well done Ven0m!

Always glad to give at least something back to the community. I also got a lot of help and information from a lot of guys on here, so it's the least I can do. Just drop Roy an email or let me know and I can contact him for you and for sure regarding the 034, still gathering the tools and small material, it'll be a productive winter. Thanks brother!

[CoreyRS]

Looks great! I love the stock shifter, but yours looks perfect, especially with that interior!

Put me in the way skeptical camp about resting your hand on the shifter causing any mechanical problems. Especially when the shifter has the spring in place, meaning any additional axial load would be absorbed by the spring. If you are resting your hand with enough mass to depress that spring, then maybe.

[WinterRunner]

I like it a lot for your car (OEM+ alum interior), and it really looks well made! That being said, I still prefer the OEM look in 9 out of 10 applications. Sorry I'm such a stick in the mud.

[wednesday]

What a beaut

[SportShifters]

Apologies for the late reply, we are indeed at the Motorshow Essen now, so I didn't find the time yet to do so...

Alot of credits go to yourself Simon, for providing great detailed info, pictures, measurements and attaching the shift boot to the original frame so nicely.

[ven0m]

Looks great! I love the stock shifter, but yours looks perfect, especially with that interior!

Put me in the way skeptical camp about resting your hand on the shifter causing any mechanical problems. Especially when the shifter has the spring in place, meaning any additional axial load would be absorbed by the spring. If you are resting your hand with enough mass to depress that spring, then maybe.

Corey, sorry for the late reply... I wasn't referring to the force you exhibit vertically on the lever as the spring is only there to prevent you of putting the car into reverse in a subconscious action (it's a fail-safe or reminder that you cannot access that gear while shifting in the usual pattern). Depressing the spring while in a gear and in forward motion will do nothing to the transmission as this motion doesn't influence the two selector leavers which stretch forward to the transmission.

I was referring to the forces you exhibit in a horizontal plain. Basically the same force you apply to the lever while selecting gears - left/right/forward/backward. If you rest your hand on the lever your hand will wobble about same as the car shakes due to the road. Example, you are in third gear and you have 30% throttle - cruising; your hand is rested on that 3rd gear and your car hits a pothole; in that moment your body will wobble with the car and your shoulder/arm/hand will put pressure on the lever to the left and backwards - same as trying to pull the lever out of third gear while the clutch is still engaged and there is force on the gear itself. That is the actual problem.

For ease of explanation:


@Winter thanks! Nice of you to stick around the RS4 forums after trading up to a single letter Audi
Does the R8 in the US come with the same Euro seats like we have?

And thanks to all the rest including Roy@Sportshifters for the awesome support and quick production!