hunterp27

All,
Has anyone in the D3 family lowered their gearshift? In other words, has anyone cut it down to make it lower in profile? It's the one thing in the D3 interior that has always bothered me. To me it looks like a Cobra raised up ready to strike. It looks like a 90's Camry and is the only design blemish in an otherwise unparalleled interior design. I cannot be the only guy who thinks it looks a little outta place for this car. All of the other cars in this class have gearshifts that are much less obtrusive and understated. I love the D4 shifter and I can only assume this was a result of complaints regarding the D3 style.

I was looking it over the other day and it looks like it could be lowered about an inch (which in my opinion would be a huge improvement) by removing it and cutting down the metal. The question then becomes, What happens to the excess cabling that was designed for a longer run. Any experience here? Once last thought.....looks like you can buy the whole dang assembly on eBay for about 80 Bucks from a donor car and could take a look at the whole thing to see what could be done?
Hunter

mishar

Exactly my thoughts. Including eBay part. So who is going to do it first?

hunterp27

My vote is that you do it Mishar. I'll split the cost of the donor part from eBay with ya. Just gimme your PayPal info and I will shoot 40-50 bucks over and let ya get after it. What do ya say?

mishar

OK. I've sent an offer for $60. Not in a good condition but it will be good enough for a prototype. Let's wait for reply.

aTOMic

If someone has a diagram handy and could post it I'd appreciate it; I'm curious as to how this works (in stock form).
I agree it's too tall and not as aesthetically pleasing as the rest of the interior by far.
As long as we're talking *****, I wonder what the manual transmission's **** looks like on (Euro-spec) manual D3s... off to A8parts to search...
-Tom

mishar

I've got it for $60. It will be in my hands in a few days. That will be better than ELSA pictures.

hunterp27

Mishar,

I'd be glad to send you 30 bucks.........I was serious. I am super glad you are doing this and I have a feeling we are onto something.

Hunter

mishar

OK. That will make you the first, well the second one to get it if it works. I will still need the core if you are happy with the shorty in order to make the next one. Thanks for the jump starting this project. PM sent.

dvs_dave

Nice one. If you don't mind looking into it also, another nice mod would be to switch the tiptronic around so that pull back gives an up shift and push forward a downshift. Why it's the other way round I don't know as it's not at all intuitive or inline with traditional sequential gearbox operation.

mishar

My question too. You can buy one from UK, but with paddle shifters it doesn't matter that much.