The Stranger

Gentlemen (and ladies), I have finally managed to compile what I feel are my unbiased personal thoughts and opinions regarding the Billet Products short shifter, in comparison to the stock shifter in my 2003 c5 z06, and MGW short shifter I purchased a few weeks after purchasing my car this past March.

One of the first modifications I make in any sports car that I own is the purchase of a short shifter. I simply do not like the stock, butter churning feel of any factory shifter. The Corvette was no exception. The shifts were sloppy and long. Nothing that I would expect to find in a sports car of this caliber. I drove around with the stock shifter for a month or two. I researched the available short shifters on the market at the time. Hurst, MGW, and B&M were considered. I knew about Billet Products from my research concerning a short shifter for a friends GTO so I asked the forum if anybody had any experience with their shifter. It seemed that nobody had even heard of the company, which wasn't surprising as they are based out of Australia.

I contacted the guys at BP and asked about their product. In the meantime, I went ahead and purchased the MGW short shifter.

Upon receiving the MGW, I immediately noticed it's solid and sturdy construction. It made the factory shifter look like something a high schooler threw together in the last 10 minutes of shop class.

Upon installation, the actual throw was noticeably reduced when compared to stock, but the height of the shifter was higher than I liked, so I cut down the threaded shaft about 1 and 3/8's of an inch. Perfect. The throws were great. Not sloppy at all. It took some effort to shift from 4th to 5th, but that was to be expected, as the springs need some time to break in and loosen up.

I was in constant contact with the guys over at BP, as they had a product for the Corvette that wasn't really marketed much in the United States. They offered to send me a short shifter to test out for them.

Upon receiving the product, I noticed that it had a similar beefiness to the MGW. Solidly built and looked like an 18 wheeler could run over it before causing any damage to the unit. One difference that I immediately saw was the threaded shaft. It was a separate piece that screwed into the shifter itself. The reason for this? It was height adjustable. I'll touch on this shortly.

I installed the unit that night in place of the MGW. Again, the length of the shifter shaft (height wise) was about the same as that of the original MGW, and again too high for my personal preference. I did the same and cut down about an inch and 3/8's to get it as low as I liked.

An interesting feature of the Billet Products short shifter is the locking gates (they refer to as "positive stops") to prevent excessive synchro wear. A nice touch indeed.

I finished the install and took the car out for a spin. My first thought was "Whoa!". The BP unit made the bolt action rifle shifting of the MGW feel vague and long. With each throw of the shifter, it felt as if the gears were solidly locking into place.

The shifts seemed to click into their respective positions even more so than they did with the MGW. I was thoroughly impressed. I perceived the shifter throw itself as being slightly shorter than the MGW's, which makes sense as the BP is 35% - 40% shorter than stock, and the MGW I believe is around 30%.

Remember the adjustable shaft I mentioned? If the throw is too short, or the shift **** sits too low for a particular driver, he or she can adjust the shaft and increase the height by a considerable amount. About 2-3 inches or so.

At this point in time I had no interest in going back to the MGW short shifter. The only thing left was to see how the BP would hold up while racing. I race the vette on numerous road courses throughout the area. The Billet Products short shifter was absolutely great. Nothing loosening up or getting lodged anywhere and no issues to speak of as of yesterday when I took pics of it for this review. I now have about 5k miles on this unit and it's been trouble free the whole time.

Enough rambling. Onto the pics.

Here is the BP short shifter height with my aftermarket shift **** on. The factory boot was cut to accommodate the low height.






Here you'll notice a hole cut in the factory rubber cover. This was done to accommodate the MGW short shifter. I feel that this won't be needed with the Billet Products shifter, and the included round rubber boot will offer an extra level of sound deadening (2 layers of rubber, versus the 1 layer I currently have). Although I can't report any annoying noise with this shifter.




Note the threaded shaft. Loosen the locking nut to make any height adjustments if necessary.




The base of the BP short shifter. Note the adjustable 'positive stops' fore and aft.






Shifter is in 3rd gear.




Shifter is in Neutral.




Shifter is in 4th gear.




I know that was rather cumbersome and long winded, but I hope my review came off as honest and unbiased. If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask away, or PM me.

gcz49

Is it available anywhere in the U.S. How much?

Don O.

Thanks for the review. I may just order one now!

Don

SJSZ06

Does that shifter have bias springs like the MGW?

lionelhutz

Unless the design recently changed there are no springs in the MGW shifter.

Peter

The Stranger

The Billet Products short shifter has centering springs from what I know. And as far as lateral difficulty, it is either on par, or SLIGHTLY (and this is almost inperceivable) more difficult to move side to side than my version of the MGW short shifter. And when I purchased it, I was told that it was the 'new' (smoother) shifting version. Take that as you will.

waddisme

Where did you get yours - from Australia? I googled it and found zero US vendors. Billets website had them listed for $375 AUS, or about $325 US plus whatever shipping would be from AUS. Any US vendors? Price seems to be about in line with MGW.

BTW - do you want to sell your MGW?

0Double D Mods

I have the shifter plates for these as well
www.doubledmods.com


The shifter looks great

ncvettes

I see a distributorship in your future!

Let us know how we can order one. Maybe from you?

Cordes Performance Racing

i wanna know how you did the valentine one setup in what looks like a humont dash kit.

The Stranger

PM me for more info. I'd like to keep this thread on track as much as possible.

SJSZ06

There are in mine.
They help center the stick left to right. None for fore and aft.
They also make it hard to get into the 1-2 and 5-6 gate, not to
mention reverse. I changed mine to some lighter springs I got
at Home Depot.
As soon as I can figure out how, I plan to get rid of them, but
they hold the pivot ball down too. I can actually pull the shifter
up about 3/4 inch - not enough to pull the lower ball completely
out of the shift rod socket, but enough to be of concern.