Short Shifters, Rennshift or Much Cheaper Weltmeister Options

[jporsche914]

I have a 1972 1.7L 914 and i want a shorter more direct throw. I have been reading a couple of posts about the rennshift. It seems to be a great shifter for the 914 but it is a bit pricey compared to the Weltmeister short shift kit. Would the cheaper Weltmeister shifter still feel better than stock with all the bushing replaced?? They say that the throw is reduced 30 percent which is the same as the rennshift. Do you guys think it is worth going with the Rennshifter or do you think i would be happier with the Weltmeister shifter.
Thanks

[ArtechnikA]

there was no such thing as a WeltMeister the last time i drove my 914.
but there were short-shift kits, and i've used a couple. the first i put into my 914,6, which as you probably know, uses a completely different linkage. i thought it was fine, except for occasionally trying to upshift from 2nd to 3rd and getting 5th on hard (track conditions...) right hand turns. at that time, our only choices were solid (aluminum) transmission mounts, which everyone said were for race cars only, and OEM mounts. we have many other choices now...

i put that same short-shifter into a tailshift 914.4 and thought it worked fine there too; it had 'more' miles but still not a huge number.

the WeltMeister shifter is not -that- expensive, and if youve already replaced ALL the bushings and ALL the engine and transmission mounts and you still don't like the shifting, it might work for you, although i gather from the other comments in this thread that it's not -just- a travel-reducing ball and you may not like whatever else it does.

i have a RennShift in my early 911, along with all-new bushings, solid engine mounts (Club Sport transmission mounts just as soon as i can swap the transmission carrier...) and a Stomski shift coupler. the 911 shift mechanism is just about as direct as you can get - the rod from the shifter goes directly to the nose cone. the RennShift transformed the car; i think it's wonderful. transforms the car, and i still need to do a bit of fine adjustment from when i uprated to the aluminum stick.

IMO, it's a good value, but it -is- a lot of money, no question. for no money at all, you can try to learn to make the best of what you've got. for the price of a WeltMeister, you might like what it does for you and it could buy you some time, and you can always resell the WeltMeister part at a swap meet or something when you're ready to upgrade, so it won't be a total loss. the RennShift is, tho, IMHO, the untimate, right solution.

but we all make price/performance tradeoffs in our cars, i'm no exception. do what you have to now, and do what you want when you can.