Audi B8/8.5 Ultimate Short Throw Shifter Kit With Weighted Shift Clamp | B8014A3

The factory mounting plate that holds the shifter to the body of the car is made of flimsy plastic with a layer of sound-deadening foam between it and the vehicle’s center tunnel. The slider bushings between the plate and the shifter housing are made of soft flexible rubber with tons of slop that gets worse with age. During “enthusiastic” 1-2 shifting, it’s easy to put enough side load on the shift lever to compress the bushings and cause the OEM plate to flex, allowing the shift linkage to get hung up in the reverse track in the transmission. This causes that “sticky” spot you feel between first and second that often causes missed shifts and lost races. Shifter housing wear can add to this as well. No other shifter addresses this problem.

Not only does the JXB Billet Shifter Mounting Plate eliminate this issue, it gives an extremely solid feel to your shifter. The edges of the pattern are no longer soft, but make a solid thud, telling you you’ve arrived at the next gear.

The JXB Short Shift Clamp gives you a 27% reduction in the length of the throw on your shifts at a fraction of the price of other short throw shifter kits. A typical short throw shifter kit comes with a shorter top side of the lever and a longer bottom side. This kit takes advantage of the available space below the OEM shift lever to extend the length of the OEM lever even longer than the other short throw shifters. This results in a massive throw reduction for a fraction of the price.

The weighted version adds 417g of mass to the bottom of the shifter, which is the equivalent of adding 260g at the knob. Keep in mind most weighted shift knobs are advertised as their total mass, not mass gained. For example a 240g knob only adds about 120g of mass. So our 260g equivalent mass gained is like having a 380g shift knob.

Before you assume your missed shifts are due to user error, wearing synchros, or other transmission issues, go out to your car and do this experiment:

1. With the car off, parking brake applied, and foot off the clutch, with little force applied, shift from 1st-2nd a number of times.

2. Apply additional leftward force towards the reverse gear. Increase the force until the shifter starts getting caught in the middle going 1 —> 2. Try both fast and slow shifts.

3. If this is the sensation you feel when you miss a shift, then the JXB Billet Shifter Mounting Plate is the solution. You don’t suck at shifting, your shifter does.