After seeing the glowing reviews on this forum, I purchased my own MGW shifter. I was a little skeptical to be honest. The install took about 3+ hours over 2 nights. I stopped after the first night because I didn't have a tool that can work on a T40 bolt. I was also unfamiliar with how to use a torque wrench and I end up, hopefully, tightening it somewhere close to the recommended 22 lb-ft torque.

So after the install on the 2nd night, I tried to shift it through all gears to make sure the car computer confirm that it goes into all gears properly. I didn't turn on the engine while I was testing, and 1-5, 7 and R worked perfectly, indicated by the dashboard. But 6th refused to go in half the time. But it was getting late and I thought maybe it'll be different when the engine is on and it gets warmed up.

Next morning I took my wife to the airport and all gears works perfectly! It does take more effort and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet. I do feel the shifts is more "instinctual". What I mean is that I want 1st gear, I push forward, with a tiny push to the left, and it goes in. Moving to 2nd is almost a straight pull down. Gear 1 through 6 was like that without me thinking much about it. But 7th needs some getting used to now. The effort seems like a lot more to get to 7th. Reverse is no problem.

Overall I think I'm happy with the change. I was a bit nervous about doing it myself, but I'm happy I did it. I feel accomplished and now I know the inner workings of my car a tiny bit better.

Lastly I didn't think I would like a ball as a shifter, but it's actually really nice.

 

Very nice, well worth the money!

 

MGW shifter was by far the best mod I did on my C7. 7th is a bit more effort but I never use it anyway. I equate the shifts to a bolt action rifle. Very solid.