Hey guys,

I know this has become more of a sore subject for most but this shifter is now available as I order a few yesterday at PRI. They will ship out on Monday. I was able to put my hands on one at the show and work it through its paces. Its a ratchet shifter with reverse lock out and it has a OD button at the top of the gear indicator on the side. Overall its a great looking peice with some nice features.

Now to bring the reality in, One if you want the best for racing then put your car in drive and turn OD off along with my tunes and you'll have the best for your automatic transmission.

Secondly, if your car is completely stock then you will NOT be able to manually shift it at any point higher then 6000 rpm's because in the factory PCM it is setup to manually shift at 6000. Now there again with a tune specifically written to shift higher manually,this would be a new request as this isn't something normally changed nor done in either SCT or Diablo with the canned tunes, this would be possible so its not a major issue.

My overall take on it is it is a very nice part and great quality as it has a true leather shift boot on it as well. I'm installing mine early this coming week and once its in I'll gladly post some photos. I just wanted to inform the consumer as well as to the tuning aspect to the shifter and a few other points.

http://www.bamachips.com/store/index...fb1e55b558d678


thanks, Doug

 

`nice looking piece

 

It does look pretty sweet. Not cheap tho. Youch!!!

 

The " O/D " above the " P " is the overdrive off switch, that's a neat part to it. I'm out the door at PRI looking for more new stuff to bring to you guys..

 

that is one sweet looking shifter!! But man, almost $500 makes the couple hundred for a good 5 speed shifter look like steal!!

 

Thanks for the info, Doug. If it ever gets down into the $250 range, I'll be interested.

 

Thanks for the info Doug!!

 

Crap, I just spent tons of money on performance mods ... this is next on my list.

-BRyan

 

Doug, glad to hear this shifter is finally available. Amazing how expensive it is, though, considering that rachet shifters for most other applications are typically in the $150-$250 range (GM THM's, C4, C6, FMX, Torqueflites, etc.). I've had ratchet shifters in prior automatics, and never paid 1/2 what TCI is wanting, so I'm not seeing the value, even though I'd love to click through the gears for casual driving.

At the strip, I leave mine in "drive" as I have a custom dyno tune written to shift at 6,400 rpm's. My tune is also written to allow me to manually shift up to a max of 6,800 rpm's, but that's higher rpm's than needed for optimum ET's at the track. Plus, with 4.10's, big stall converter, and a supercharger, I couldn't shift it quick enough to do better than leaving it in drive anyway. So, the ratchet shifter wouldn't be a "performance" mod for me, just eye candy. That said, pricing will kill this, otherwise, very nice looking piece of hardware.

I emailed TCI directly earlier this year to let them know my thoughts on pricing this ratchet shifter. I suppose they could sell a few at their inflated prices, or they could sell 'em like hotcakes at a much lower level and generate more interest in the rest of the TCI line up of transmission goodies for our cars (heavy duty transmissions, converters, etc.) which have more room for profit margin.

 

Oh, forgot to mention. As I previously told TCI, $299 or less, and I'm a buyer for this shifter. If TCI would sell them to vendors for well below that so that the vendor can make some $'s, then everyone will win. TCI would then recoup their development costs by selling at a lower price, but in much bigger volumes.

At $400-$500, most vendors will find very little demand for this product, rendering TCI's development costs a big waste of resources (both money and especially time - considering how long it took them to finally bring this to market).

 

wow, that's alot of money for a ratchet shifter, TCI must be smoking crack, haha! :-\ I know new parts often cost a bit more, but this is kind of silly! It's 1/2 of what I paid for my used manual transmission, linkage & parts, and MGW shifter! haha

 

+1 to everything Brian said. It's nice and I'd consider getting one just for the looks but no way in hell I'd pay $500 for it.

 

Nice looking piece! Pricy.
I might consider it if the price is lower.
Group buy?

Hey Bryan(2005RedGT) Long time no see. I see you went to PSI for your tune.
How is the Stang running?

 

If I had an auto, I'd hit that. Nice piece.

 

So do you have to wind it up to make it work?

 

Forgive me for being stupid when it comes to ratchet shifters, but what exactly is the brass knuckle attachment for? Is it just for no slip hand shifting, or do u have to lift/lower it for shifts?

I agree with everyone else tho. Killer looking piece, but for 5 bills, I wont be buying it. $200-300 and it would be sold.

 

I believe that is for reverse lock-out as it is required (I think on all tracks) when drag racing.

 

Correct, you lift it to be able to engage reverse (and park).

 

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Does it ratchet down or not? If I went to such a shifter, it would have to give me the ability to make positive downshifts.

Russ