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Gated Shifter In the works

689 Views 18 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Node
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Been working on this for about a year on and off, Its been a labor of love based on one of my seemingly Unobtainable dream cars the Legendary Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Gated V12, Since I don't have a Spare $1M sitting around I took some inspiration and decided to make a gated Manual of my own and I can finally say I have a CLOSE enough prototype to test placement and there's still a lot more to be done, but eventually it will be finished. Sorry in advanced my cars a mess, its been siting for about a year, and its disassembled currently as I swapped my dash when I had to do my Heater core and never fully put it back and I was about to install my Midship Console before Firestone left my control arm bolts loose during an alignment causing my axle to pull out and slam back in destroying my c66 trans case, shearing off the rear mount and I really just lost interest and any motivation for the car as a whole for a while. But the part works the above issue makes it a bit hard to shift into some gears and this is only compounded by a broken shift cable so its cumbersome to try to shift between the gears but the gates do fit (they still need to be adjusted to fit a bit tighter, and a bit shorter in length) and the console adapter needs ALOT of refinement. But hopefully I can get this finished and have a few for sale. I know already there's going to be comments about
1. Why not put the gated shifter plate at the opening instead of raising it up?
Well that's because our cars shifters have a pivot point almost DIRECTLY at the opening for the shift boot, and as leavers work the closer to the pivot point the smaller the movements. Long story short, there's not enough movement to have a defined gate, and even if there was the Fingers would be so absolutely small they would be brittle and it wouldn't look like a gated shifter either. So raised it is! This means when theyre finished they will have a 2-3" shift extension added to clear the gated shifter plate.
2. What material is it going to be made out of?
Likely ABS or CF Nylon. But im still a WAYS off from making that decision. I could probably have them CNC'd but cost would get a bit wild. As it is if I do produce them they will be very low volume batches.

This its a decently large undertaking due to all the small variations in everyone's spec's Short throw/Oem 6/5 speed cars ECT. so I may not be able to guarantee PERFECT or 100% compatibility with all shifters as I only have 1 Car on hand and its a 6 speed with a generic short shifter, and a TRD short shifter at my disposal. I can guestimate for a 5 speed but that only goes so far. I have a c65 Im swapping in soon and brand new shift cables so once I get it back up and running Ill keep working on this in my free time.

Love to hear what you all think about the project.



Hood Automotive tire Motor vehicle Automotive design Steering part
Hood Automotive design Automotive tire Vehicle Gear shift
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I think that you have pretty much proven that this gating plate is not compatible with a short shifter. You are planning on lengthening the shift pattern just to make this possible, and even then, it looks like this will murder your little finger if you make a mistake shifting.
Well that’s not exactly true, I have a short throw in my car and where it sits now it’s just 2-3mm away from where it needs to be to click into gear/hit the back of the gate. The Lamborghini console also sits higher, around where my shift plate would sit, so adding a 2-3” extension just to clear the plate wouldn’t be that intrusive I don’t think. Once paired with my Midship console I think it’ll fit just about perfectly
While yes a lot of that tech is obsolete the MR2 shares surprisingly alot with the older Lamborghini’s of its Era. SMT/E-gear cars for example.
The Lotus guys do the same gate in billet aluminum for the S2 Elise / Exige. They seem to like it and nobody complains. Probably because it is strictly cosmetic.
Actually got a lot of my inspiration from theirs even bought one to have to get rough measurements from, the elsie/Exige shifter also is a different diameter but even then the way theirs sit at an angle and the height of console/pivot mechanism on their console doesn’t translate to our platform and the differences add up so much so that it makes the Elsie/Exige part incompatible. I tried because I wanted to just make an adapter to run theirs instead of all the work I’ve had to do
Technically, Lamborghini only kept gated shifters out of tradition. The newer models never needed them. And by newer I think anything in the late 80s and on. It was never a performance tool, more of a necessity due to how their old shifters worked and had imprecise travel.
Tradition or not it’s still worth it to me, I’ve had the luxury of working on a gated Diablo, as well as work around a Countach. I will always love and dream of owning a gated manual and this likely will be the closest I get for a long time
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I was really close to picking up a use one off of an Elise. Glad I didn't and went with the Hybrid Racing unit instead. Sure it's a little less classy than what you will eventually end up with but I don't think my build is about subtle class.

Are you going to have the plate milled when you're done? 5 axis work from some of the online shops has become quite affordable especially in chunks that thickness. The lead time sucks though if you don't use common materials.
I’m still not sure I have 2 pretty nicely modded 3d printers at my disposal so Carbon fiber nylon is also an option but I would 100% have them milled if It was within the realm of affordable. Being able to polish them or put some old school firearm style jeweling like the attached photo onto one would be insane. Plus worst come to worse I have an entire powder coating setup at my disposal too so any color is possible for both my shifter shaft and my shift plate if done in aluminum
Rectangle Grille Mesh Carbon Automotive exterior
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