Company
SportShifters has been genuinely fantastic to deal with. They are prompt to answer questions and are super flexible about customizing the shifters and doing different configurations. I dealt basically entirely with Roy, and he was awesome. We had some delivery delays due to a shipping company's difficulties and he was on top of it, calling them every day to get it sorted. I could keep going, but it would be redundant: I put a lot of value in how a company is to deal with. I've had some really bad or just neutral experiences with plenty of the companies that advertise on here or sell products for our car, this is not one of those.
Product Quality/Fit
What you guys are probably really here for! Overall product quality is fantastic. In the kit, you get the aluminum block, the boot, the aluminum shaft, and the shifter which is a multi-piece setup. It's all really straightforward as far as install/how it all goes together. Everything fits well and install onto the car was a breeze. For reference, I have one of the taller shafts you can put on the knob, so you wouldn't have to make yours sit as tall. I have a shorter shaft, so I'll try to put that on and take pictures eventually.
A couple notes on install:
- You will have to remove the chrome trim that surrounds the boot on your shifter surround. If you are careful, you can remove this without destroying the tabs that hold it in place and only bending them
- IF you have vinyl wrapped your shifter surround, you will likely have to re-wrap it. The chrome piece mentioned above left an imprint on my vinyl wrap, so I decided to re-wrap it. If you haven't vinyl wrapped your trim, you will just want to clean this area well.
- The pictures on the website can be a bit confusing, because they use a generic black plastic mount to display these on. This plate doesn't come with the shifter, instead the aluminum block attaches to YOUR shifter surround, so it will be surrounded by whatever your trim is.
The shifter feels great in use. No play/wobbling, and the set screws have held without issue (no loctite or anything like that). The way the boot descends adds so much depth to the whole shifter assembly, it's pretty fantastic.
Product Customizability
This is probably what I hold SportShifters in the highest regard for: I bought this kit right when it released, and there were already tons of options. Months later, and they've added so many more levels of customizability it's hard to wrap your head around. You can check out their website for some of the stuff I'm talking about, but you get to choose everything including:
- Shift knob style/shape
- Letter coloring on shift knob
- Material for shift knob
- Length of shifter shaft
- Material for shift boot
- Color for stitching for boot
- Weight of the knob (I think they have 2-4 levels of weight)
To me that's pretty cool, meaning you can tailor your setup to exactly your interior theme.
Product Comparison
So how does it compare to the BFI knobs? It's kind of a difficult comparison. The price difference I believe is around or a little over $100 in favor of the BFI knobs. But then with SportShifters, you aren't JUST getting a shift knob. You're getting an entirely new shifter setup really, and it drastically changes the look of the car.
Physically, the BFI knob is a decent amount thicker/larger in diameter. I don't think this is good or bad either way, but more of a preference thing. I was always very fond of my BFI knobs; I went with two because I wanted to switch colors. But this is an important difference too. The SS knobs are modular. You can remove the top disk from the material/grip part of the knob. So if you wanted to switch out your lettering for a different color, or wanted to switch from leather to ultra-suede, you can do so rather easily without buying a whole other knob (I actually did just this, and am switching to red lettering and stitching to better match my interior). So if you are wishy-washy or like to change a lot like myself, the SS knob makes this easier on the bank
BFI Knob in my car:
SS knob in my car:
And a before/after picture of my interior:
Let me know if you guys have questions. I'll be taking more pictures eventually so will add those here when I do.
Roy if you're seeing this, thanks again for all the help!
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Originally Posted by kurupt_hawaiian
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