Just got the shifter installed. Have not driven it yet but just going through the adjustments it feels amazing. As far as the price, not getting the wrong gear and crashing is worth it to me. I wouldn't consider it on a street car
But getting the wrong gear, basically two gears to low is pretty scary. I did just that, down shifted from 5th to 4th but actually got 2nd gear...was not fun.
So since that incident I have done 95 durometer motor mounts, diff bushing and power frame brace. After all of that did Watkins Glen and still had to be slow and very careful shifting. That was my second track event with the 6-speed and could tell when I was in the wrong gate so would correct before releasing the clutch.
Just to be clear I am not new to this. This is my 5th track car (including 944 turbo I am in the process of doing an LS1 conversion in) and been instructing since '96. Never experienced the ease to miss a gear like this.

 

I completely agree with you. Makes me nervous, not being totally certain I am going to mishift. I drive with that fear of missing a shift in a bad place on track. I just would like to see if the MR or Gracing shifters would be a viable solution at 1/4 of the price of the CAE.

i have even considered going back to a 5 speed with not as good ratios to make the car enjoyable again. Albeit at my torque numbers those 5 speed might not last a long time.

 

I haven't ordered mine yet. Did you measure the ball end? And what is the construction like? Is it detachable? Does it use a bushing on the end like the stock shifter?

 

Just drove it. Nice thing about Indiana there are no inspections of any kind, anything can be registered!
The ball is the same size as the outside diameter of the bushing. Kind of interesting no bushing is used.
Construction is what I would expect for the price. Very nice piece of equipment.
Shifting is very positive, it is spring loaded to the 3rd-4th gear gate. If you don't push it to 1-2 or 5-6 it will be in the center gate. The stops for the 1-2 and 5-6 gates are adjustable so making a concerted effort towards the those gates is also very positive. With the reverse lockout there is no chance of getting into that gate which I have done enough time that it was worrisome with the stock shifter.
Over all very happy, but again for me would not spend the money on a street car...although does look pretty impressive. (if you're into that :-)

 

Is the lower ball section a separate piece that threads on so that I could possibly machine the other size if I needed to swap in the other type of 6 speed?

 

Sorry, I can't answer that. I would have had to check before installing which I didn't.
I would assume (I know can be dangerous) that a bushing could be made to make the small ball work in the larger joint.
$1000 assumption.

 

If you were to use a bushing on the small ball the bushing wall thickness would only be 1.5mm which is less than 1/16". I don't know how something like delrin would hold up at that wall thickness. Hmm.

 

Yeah, but would bronze work. I had a 5x racing bronze bushing prior to doing this. Really just asking, don't know.

 

This picture from CAE's website seems to pretty clearly show the lower ball section removed. Seems to reason that if CAE won't sell you the spare other-sized ball to complete the set, you could machine one as you mentioned.

 

Interesting, seems like for a "few" buck they could send both of them and you could do what you need to do. It took me a while to figure out which transmission I had.
So if the ball was too big would machining and getting the correct shape be reasonable?...or is that getting kind of advanced?
I do have a couple of welders a grinder and some files...LOL!

 

Has anyone driven this and the MR shifter? Looking to buy in Europe and the shipped and imported prices of the MR are looking pretty horrendous, so it's only like 1.6x the price of the MR....

 

If that lower pivot ball is aluminum, I'd pass on that shifter.

 

I bought the MR one. The CAE looks like it is very rattly.