When will the C5 Hurst Shifter be available?

 

As of August 5th when I talked to a Hurst Rep, he said they were not certain they would be able to get the bugs out of the shifter noise problem. I went with the ripper by B&M and glad of it. :yesnod: :yesnod: :yesnod:

 

I'm starting to lose my patience playing this waiting game also and I am about to say the hell with it and order the ripper because I can't stand the stock shifter!

 

Guys,

Don't hold your breath. Hurst will not be releasing their shifter for some time.

Go with the best seller and what most C5 owners are already running, the B&M Ripper Shifter!!

Shawn

 

Here is a post on 9/20 by ZRCHRIS, a Hurst employee:

Delivery is being delayed. For various reasons , to give people the best shifter right off the bat, we have scrapped the original sticks and are making new ones right now. The bases and hardware will not change, and are ready to go now. We had planned to make the stick changes to the second round, but the company decided the changes were significant enough to do this instead. This decision was just made at the end of last week. With manufacture, e-coat, and assembly, we're around a month away now.
As Collin has indicated (COBrien), even the first version had advantages over the B&M, and the second version is simply correcting some details, like a 1" shorter handle height. It's worth the wait and it won't be much longer.

As with the C4 Hurst shifter, I will be selling this shifter direct as soon as it is released at a very good price.

Chris

******************************

The Ripper is a great alternative as is the Kirban. The Kirban is less stiff, so, for you autocrossers and road racers making a lot of shifts during your outings, consider the Kirban. Drag race guys, the Ripper is probably the choice. For the wife's use, the Kirban.

We carry both and look forward to the Hurst when they ship.

RG


[Modified by RG in Dallas, 1:14 PM 9/26/2001]

 

What's a very good price? :rolleyes: In our Corvette world, our products seem to cost twice as much as comparable ls1 products. But again who would have thought so many people would be willing to pay $200+ for an air filter or $800+ for two mufflers! :p:

 

RG, Good info. Been waiting to hear something other than speculation about the release. Thanks. Keep us posted on Hurst up-dates. Based on all the Hurst shifters I've owned in the past I'm sure it will be worth the wait and have a reasonable price tag.

 

Hi guys, first, I'm not actually an employee of Hurst (I apologize for not making that too clear sometimes), I am a consultant with them, initially on the C4, and now involved with other projects like the C5 shifter. I consult with the product manager on a daily basis, so you won't get any closer to the "horse's mouth" than you will from me.

I am awaiting the first 3 sticks of the 2nd generation, to install and verify by the end of this week. One is going to CF member Collin (COBrien), who currently has a pre-production phase 1 unit in his car (he used to have a B&M). As you can see in his past posts, the vibration is much less than the B&M.

As soon as we do an install we will crank up the CNC. All else is ready to go, down to the box labels.

As far as price, Jobber is $195.

I will try to offer discounted pre-release ordering (through me), email me if you are interested.

Chris


[Modified by zrchris, 6:19 PM 10/10/2001]

 

Cricket: Nice roadster, I am thinking about reinstalling my B&M Ripper and am glad to know this info about the Hurst shifter. :chevy

 

Well.. I went ahead and threw my name in the hat for the Hurst.. Past experience with the Hurst products did it for me..


[Modified by dcronkhite, 2:14 PM 9/27/2001]

 

I just signed myself up too. :D

 

Can you give us technical details of what was the issues you had in Gen1 that caused the delays and what changes have been made in GEN2 to be significant?

don

 

I'll post comments here as soon as I receive the new unit and get it installed. Looking forward to it!

Collin

 

Delays had more to do with the company- lack of staff or staff allocation. In the transition of being sold from Dana, since January things have been tight and regular production is hard to keep up with. That, together with engineering and management for this project being in Cleveland (except me here in Atlanta) and the C5 shifters being made at the NV plant (Mallory) made things take longer than the C4 units. But the C4 unit was also more established and easier to interface.

The original engineer for the C5 shifter left the company in January. For reasons unknown he made some revisions between the prototype stick and the "Phase I" units that were unnecessary or (in my view) incorrect. We were able to deal with most of these revisions in reasonable ways, but in the end to minimize vibration we either needed to rely on powder coating or make new sticks.

The Phase II sticks vary from the Phase I in small dimensional changes, larger stick diameter to better retain the shift boot and add mass, and a 1" lower (than stock or Phase I) handle height. It actually will look like the initial prototype pictured below, Phase I was narrower above the base. E-coat will be the finish on these, just like the C4s- it's a precise thin coating of durable electrostatic paint.

Like I say, right now I'm waiting for the first three Phase II units, to install them immediately and verify- one going to Collin (above). I don't expect any surprises, the fundamental design is the same with just some detail changes to improve the quality and performance. Phase I units had only minimal vibration in final form, much less than the B&M according to Collin (and Bruce in the Corvette Fever article long ago), and the Phase II units should be better yet.

Remember also the other advantages of this shifter, the adjustable, removable bias springs that allow you to tailor the side-to-side force to your liking.

Hang in there guys, we're getting close. Keep those emails coming if you wanna get in on my offer! thanks,

Chris




[Modified by zrchris, 5:37 PM 9/27/2001]

 

zrchris,
Please contact me at VetteSSMan@aol.com

Thanks,

 

Why isn't the Hurst shifter advertised for either the 2001 or 2002 Corvette?

 

Good question. As you can see above, I emailed you to put me on the list for the new shifter. I have a 2001 Coupe but I didn't notice that the ad you posted says 1991-2000 (I just assumed it would fit all the C5's). Will the shifter fit my car? If not, I guess you can take my name off the list. :confused:

 

I've got it on my 2001...no problem at all. Haven't heard of any changes for 2002, so it should fit fine.

Collin

 

Thanks Collin. Thats what I thought but I had to make sure.

 

I'm interested, but I must have missed something... what offer?

DOH! Nevermind, I see it.:crazy:

-Kent
1997 C5 6spd


[Modified by Kent1999, 10:54 AM 9/28/2001]