Hey guys, was wondering what legality issues there are with a short throw shifter? I know the old "if it doesn't say you can.." stuff, but i met a guy at a dyno once with his rx-7 ITS that had a really sweet STS. I know it'd help me tremendously out on the track but dont wanna waste the money if i cant use it. Thanks everyone.

 

Legally you can't. As I recall the rule, you can shorten the shifter handle, but you can't use a redesigned piece. Don't quote me on it, I don't have the rule book here in front of me.

Realistically, unless you're fellow competitors are anally retentative, no one will care.

OTOH, after two transmissions, I've finally started listening to my rebuilders and am sticking with the stock shifter.

 

The shifter may be bent but not otherwise modified. The stock "****" is way long. After much searching I found a B&M **** that is threaded all the way to the top. Shortens the shifter a ton, makes it feel a lot better, and shortens the throws some. Other than that, like Silkworm says, many will tell you that short shifters create more problems than they solve. Decreasing your shift time by 1/100th of a second won't net you that in lap time and one missed shift will cost you more than you'll gain during a whole season.

 

Chris and silkworm are right. Bending it is ok, cutting it or replacing it is not.

Considering that the weakest link in an ITS RX7 is the stock transmission, I would not be looking for a short shifter. Make sure you have good bushings for the shifter, both the one on the shifter AND the one in the trans.

But, If the shifter you saw is the one I think, it is a well made piece. (and they have been using them for a long time without being protested)

 

Want to tighten up the feel of the trans? Pick up the shifter cup from a Miata. It's the piece that the lower shifter ball sits in. The Miata uses a 2nd coil spring to center the shifter instead of the crappy wire spring thing used in the RX-7. Makes the 5-R gate much more defined and a LOT easier to hit third. You'll need the cup, the spring, the spring tappet, and the side cover from a Miata. That and the aluminum bushing for the cup instead of the stock plastic piece. Makes for a shifter that is worlds better than even a good stock RX-7. Keep in mind that the RX-7 shifter is generally thought of as crappy but the Miata is world-class and they are essentially identical with only very small detail differences.

 

Thanks for your input guys, as always you all are very helpful. Yeah we already had to get 1 tranny rebuilt because when we first bought the car it would make a slight grind/click noise going into 3rd and it eventually froze the tranny in 3rd gear. We're now running the ISC racing tranny/diff combo. It's just such a long distance to travel w/ the stock shifter/**** setup. Especially coming from my SRT-4 that has a 72% redux from stock.

That is something to think about though about the weak transmissions and using a short throw shifter, i'll have to keep that in mind. And i'll look into the miata parts Ludwig and see how that plays out. I know we upgraded the bushing that the ball of the shifter sits down into, i think it's a hard plastic or metal one? I forget exactly.

Thanks again

 

I saw it on a purple and i think yellow ITS rx-7 running the #77 (i think, it was about a year ago). He said he was getting ready to run the florida stuff that year so he might be around now.

 

Yep...that is the same shifter. Different guy than I thought. I forgot he has one also....

Jim

 

thats Rene's car..hes a good friend of mine, and I think hes thinking about selling the whole car. might part out the shifter for you if your lucky.

 

i'll 3rd the stock shifter bit, longer throw = longer shifts = easier on the synchros.

we went thru a few trannies, they all ended up grinding into 3rd, you can rebuild em, and they last longer, but the 3rd gear synchro is still the weak point.

although there was that one trans we sheared all the teeth from 3rd.....

 

damn, Im all over C.ludwigs advice on this one, I had a miata, and the feel was worlds apart from the rx

 

yea that is my car that has that short shifter it is way better than the stock shifter.....i havent missed a shift yet and its no so hard on the the gearbox and is well worth the money......btw my 89Rx-7 setup for ITS awsome built car with alot of spare parts and wheels.......designfreak has seen the car and seen all the parts i have.....its66 has driven the car @ sebring and gave me good feed back about the car.....

 

Rene,
Hey, I'll gladly come throw your car around any time...It was fun. Next time, we've gotta move the seat back a little though. Jumping in after you short guys kills me....LOL
Jim

 

Hey its66, were you at the SARRC race in daytona this just past weekend? I saw a 66 ITS but wasn't sure if that was you or not. Was some fun racing this time. Since my tuning and new cooling system i dropped 7 seconds from my last time there.

 

Yep, that was me. Hopefully you saw it when it was still shiny.

7 seconds is a big improvement. That's great. I'm still trying to find that elusive last 2 seconds.

It was a pretty good weekend until the 4th lap of Sunday's race. Serious body damage to one of the cars in the BODYSHOPDOTCOM stable. (#63 silver with flames). Then, on the restart a banzai move from behind me put me off in T3 and tore up the front and rear right sides of mine. Oh well.

Hope you stayed out of all the carnage.

 

Damn, hope your car isn't too bad. I made it through unscathed (barely, at times). Yeah the car is a ton better, still got a buncha time to make up but hey we've made some huge headway. We're looking forward to some of the smaller-straights tracks because that is the only place we are losing time. In the turns the car outperforms most others, although we had a bad push towards the end.

Did you see the 2 cars on the yellow flag lap that got tangled and plowed the 944 into the wall? Looked painful, happened right behind me.

Hope we can meet at one of the next races. Good luck w/ the car.

 

What happened there? I saw the 944S down on the apron, but didn't see it happening.

Results are up on Mylaps.com already.

The 66 is almost repaired. I might respray the damaged areas this weekend(if I get ambitious) Luckily the damage wasn't too bad. Since I have insomnia and my neighbors have yet to complain about my air compressor at midnight, I'm able to get alot of work done quickly.....