DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

It's this car Sladey, previously sold by Edmund

Time to upgrade the old shifter.
I chose to buy the Rennshift and purchased it direct from J West Engineering (in the US). The parts where shipped to me very promptly.
It's a superbly engineered product.
You get everything you need included in the kit.
It comes with base plate, aluminium lever, new cup bushing, mounting bolts, even Allen keys.

You can purchase Rennshifter's configured for the 901 transmission or (as in my case) the 915.
It's not too difficult to see here the extra effort that's gone into the Rennshift over the standard Porsche offering.

They also now offer an extended stick which helps raise the gear knob slightly nearer the steering wheel rim and also has the advantage of positioning it slightly further rearwards in the car.
You can see here the extension. It's modest, perhaps 50mm? Every little helps if you have your seats pushed back like I do.

Whatever a doddle is, it must be like fitting one of these. It was a cinch.
The Rennshift is a complete kit, you don't use any of your old housing or gear lever and frankly installing it was a piece of cake.

It can be configured for a 33% shift reduction or just 20%.
I went for the least reduction and because the lever is slightly longer I guess the effective reduction is 10% or less.
You can also adjust the side action spring gates (by adding washers under the springs to strengthen the effect) but I left mine at the standard and lightest resistance.
It is also possible to set a manual reverse lockout but I think that's probably only suitable for track cars. I'm using the automatic reverse lockout and it works brilliantly.
It eliminates the possibility of graunching reverse when going down from 5 to 4. That feature works well.

So, driving impressions. Yes, very good, a nice positive action with a good solid feel and a worthwhile upgrade.
The gate centres the lever in the three/four gear plane and those two changes (which you're going to be using most) are fantastic.
The slight reduction in throw is nice and the reverse lockout very welcome.
All in all, thoroughly recommended.

I'd bought a genuine Porsche rubber boot for the later 'tower' shift gate.
It fits over the Rennshift fine and makes the new shifter look pretty standard.

All quite amazing when you think it once looked like this!

Bootsy wrote:All quite amazing when you think it once looked like this!

Another 10 years on our salted roads and it'll probably look like that again.

Great article and pictures (Jamie) in today's 911PW magazine.

Ian

Yep

I read it this morning too. Great stuff Paul, Nick, and Jamie


Regards
Mike

210bhp wrote:I read it this morning

Hmmm. No, I've not seen it myself.
They must have neglected to send me a copy.
'Guess I'll have to wait and buy it in the shops. Hopefully I can find one.

Highfield wrote:Great pictures (Jamie)

Well the publishers might not have done well but Jamie did.
He presented me (very promptly) with a disc full of high res images from the day. Superb shots too.
I had great fun driving around the Chobham test track and it was fascinating seeing how the photography is done.
Adam Towler (the journalist) was a good guy too.
I'm intrigued to see what's been written.