has anyone used the Breathles shifter? what do you think? is it ok for a daily driver?

 

Been beat to death...
I had a Hurst, then a BPP shifter. For a daily driver, I found it took to much effort to shift. I currently have a shortened stock shifter and much prefer it to any aftermarket shifter I have used. I still might go with either the C6 shifter or the newly designed B&M with isolator damping. My gut feel is that I won't see a whole lot of improvement over what I have now (I find this very demotivating as far as pulling my console back apart). Bottom line- depends on what you like and how much effort you expect to excerpt on shifting.

 

thanks for the help.

 

Had the BPP for 3 days before switching back to the factory shifter. I have a bad right sholder from an old car accident and the BPP was just too stiff to shift. I must be one of the only ones here who likes the factory shifter. Thought the BPP would be nice...lucked out and sold it to another forum member with a short shift boot the morning after I pulled it out. He got a little extra discount on it.

 

I've had one in two of my C5's and won't use anything else,
I tried all the aftermarket shifters and the BPP is the best, once you set it up correctly its no harder to shift than stock.
Use the softest springs and do the shift notch fix mod and you'll love it.

 

I had the same problem with the BPP even with the soft springs. I went back to the stock shifter since I like to put the car into low or 5th gear without fighting with the shifter. The side to side gates are to narrow and it takes a lot of force to move the shifter out of the 3-4 gate into either the 1-2 gate or the 5-6 gate. Everybody who drove the car hated it.

If you are a drag racer and pistol grip shifter type person you might like it but I went back to stock and found it to be quicker to shift through all the gears with less effort. A friend bought an 03Z just like mine that had the BPP shifter in it. He came over and drove my car after I put the stock shifter back in a couldn't believe how much better the stock unit was than the unit in his car.

When I removed the BPP after a little over a year on the car I took it apart to check on the mechanicals which are pretty simple and found the two pins and the flat plates that sit on the springs were worn. If you want a better shift effort put a C6 tranny in the car. All of the shift feel is in the tranny not the shifter. You are wasting your money on any of the aftermarket shifters.
Bill

 

I agree -- stay with factory or shortened factory.

BPP also doesn't stand behind their porducts when something goes wrong.

 

You've gotten some negative replies; here's mine, which disagrees.

I've gone from the stock piece to a Kirban then a Hurst and finally to a slightly cut down BPP with a alarge cue-ball ****. It works great!. Very precise, I can tailor it for my reach, no vibration except at full out WOT (see my HP/TQ specs below) which is really the fault of the torque tube (LG's carbon fiber soon to come). I'm an old road-race guy and have absolutely no trouble shifting this on the track. The gates ARE tight and you have to remeber to push towards 5th when going to the far right, and to allow the shifter to bring itself back to the 3rd/4th slot when downshifting or you'll get into trouble. I find all that second nature and not a problem.

As to customer support, haven't needed it, don't know.

Best of luck.

 

This all depends on your preference - short, snick-snick shifting with higher effort, or long, sloppy shifting with little to no effort. The BPP is the most ergonomically-adjustable shifters on the planet, is super-quick, and requires more effort. That being said, I must also mention that I love mine. Maybe when I get old and have arthritis, I'll change it out, but for now, this thing rocks!

 

I'm having some difficulty with my BPP. I've had it about 2+ years and over the past 4 months it's been moving laterally - while in gear!!

BPP sent me new springs - for $12 plus shipping. Didn't work. I called back. They then sent a new plastic ring (red in color). $16 plus shipping. Had it replaced. Didn't work. So, I'm now out about $50 bucks over the original purchase price and the shifter moves while in gear. I know what will happen if i call back - "want to try some more parts at your expense or would you like to buy a brand new one..."

I'm going either hurst, ripper or a C6. Can't make up my mind.

 

I found it so hard to shift into 5th I was always questioning whether or not I was going to override the reverse lockout spring and actually go into reverse. Once you watch somebody take the stock shifter and just toss it into 5th between turns 3 and 4 at 100 + mph at the Glen with no worry you start to realize how much easier it is to use the stock unit.

Bill

 

I have to chuckle while remembering my first test drive in a new C5 vert at the local dealership. I was on the highway in 5th gear and every time I tried to shift into 6th, the shifter went into fourth. My 68's shifter spring must've been long gone, as it took me quite a while to get used to my C5 coupe's stock shifter.

The point I'm making is that the perceived effort to shift any shifter is all relative - relative to what you are used to before using it. The perceived effort becomes less and less and time goes on - my BPP actually feels somewhat easy to use and I'm sure if I threw in some Redline, it'd seem like I was slicing through butter!

 

shift notch fix mod