Epiphany
Well-Known Member
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- #1
I just got back home from a three day stint in Georgia. The purpose of my visit was to help George at MGW Shifters get his GT350 ready for a track day at Roebling Road Raceway. Among the items addressed, one was to install the latest version of his shifter for the TR3160 in the GT350.
There has been a small percentage of owners that have contacted George about a change in the NVH characteristics after swapping out shifters. To alleviate most any concern, George has been hard at work identifying potential trouble areas and addressing them via sound engineering principles. The results spoke for themselves during rigorous testing this past weekend.
I should probably mention that George and I have had an endless number of discussions about a GT350 shifter, starting before the car was even released. MGW had one of the first TR3160's Ford would sell to the public and that includes purchasing a few factory shifters for dissection and evaluation. The challenge from the beginning was to create a single axis shifter and to eliminate the factory pendulum-style design altogether. Anyone can polish up a pendulum unit, shorten the trow, and sell it to the public. I highly suspect that is what you will see shortly from his competition. The problem with the TR3160 is that the internal shift gate is opposite that of say, an MT82. In other words, an MT82 shift rail moves in the opposite direction when you move the shift handle to the left or right. The TR3160 rail needs to move in the same direction. This required a clear mind, a sharp pencil, and some rolled up sleeves.
Alternative ideas were explored. In the end, George was able to make it work via a double pivot. The design was refined and tested for some time, culminating in the release of his first run. I have on my own car the first unit produced after one was whipped up for George's own GT350. I've been completely satisfied with mine as I have with his other shifters in the past. I thought it might be a good idea to share the dual pivot design to show everyone just how it works. George wanted to wait. Well, this time I was successful and as such George agreed to put together a cutaway model to illustrate his unique design. Shown in the following video is (at first) an MT82 shifter, followed by the TR3160 with a sliced up GT350 shifter that allows you to see just what I've been talking about.
[ame]
Contrast all of the above with comparison of the factory pendulum unit. Here George shows some of the downfalls of the factory unit including it's lack of precision, poor sphere/race design, and flimsy reverse lockout that also serves to lockout forward moving gears too.
[ame]
The dual pivot design now being proven and incredibly robust, George never stops refining where he can. As I mentioned, the focus on the second run has been on lightweighting where possible and to better control any potential resonance.
New unit on the left.
You can see where material has been removed and how the arms have changed.
A couple of quick videos to clarify the changes.
[ame]
[ame]
If you are a current GT350 shifter owner that experienced an NVH issue George has a solution for you in order.
[ame]
If you have any questions by all means, ask. I can say with full confidence that his shifter meets the highest of expectations. My original MGW GT350 shifter has been flawless and takes everything I can throw at it in stride. His latest unit is no different. A full day of track testing, err thrashing, at Roebling yielded nothing but quick, crisp, shifts under some pretty demanding conditions. The two (plus) hour drive each way was quiet and vibration free.
There has been a small percentage of owners that have contacted George about a change in the NVH characteristics after swapping out shifters. To alleviate most any concern, George has been hard at work identifying potential trouble areas and addressing them via sound engineering principles. The results spoke for themselves during rigorous testing this past weekend.
I should probably mention that George and I have had an endless number of discussions about a GT350 shifter, starting before the car was even released. MGW had one of the first TR3160's Ford would sell to the public and that includes purchasing a few factory shifters for dissection and evaluation. The challenge from the beginning was to create a single axis shifter and to eliminate the factory pendulum-style design altogether. Anyone can polish up a pendulum unit, shorten the trow, and sell it to the public. I highly suspect that is what you will see shortly from his competition. The problem with the TR3160 is that the internal shift gate is opposite that of say, an MT82. In other words, an MT82 shift rail moves in the opposite direction when you move the shift handle to the left or right. The TR3160 rail needs to move in the same direction. This required a clear mind, a sharp pencil, and some rolled up sleeves.
Alternative ideas were explored. In the end, George was able to make it work via a double pivot. The design was refined and tested for some time, culminating in the release of his first run. I have on my own car the first unit produced after one was whipped up for George's own GT350. I've been completely satisfied with mine as I have with his other shifters in the past. I thought it might be a good idea to share the dual pivot design to show everyone just how it works. George wanted to wait. Well, this time I was successful and as such George agreed to put together a cutaway model to illustrate his unique design. Shown in the following video is (at first) an MT82 shifter, followed by the TR3160 with a sliced up GT350 shifter that allows you to see just what I've been talking about.
[ame]
Contrast all of the above with comparison of the factory pendulum unit. Here George shows some of the downfalls of the factory unit including it's lack of precision, poor sphere/race design, and flimsy reverse lockout that also serves to lockout forward moving gears too.
[ame]
The dual pivot design now being proven and incredibly robust, George never stops refining where he can. As I mentioned, the focus on the second run has been on lightweighting where possible and to better control any potential resonance.
New unit on the left.
You can see where material has been removed and how the arms have changed.
A couple of quick videos to clarify the changes.
[ame]
[ame]
If you are a current GT350 shifter owner that experienced an NVH issue George has a solution for you in order.
[ame]
If you have any questions by all means, ask. I can say with full confidence that his shifter meets the highest of expectations. My original MGW GT350 shifter has been flawless and takes everything I can throw at it in stride. His latest unit is no different. A full day of track testing, err thrashing, at Roebling yielded nothing but quick, crisp, shifts under some pretty demanding conditions. The two (plus) hour drive each way was quiet and vibration free.
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