Order placed!

[HCF - John]

I've met and talked to several of you, but wanted to take a minute to say hello formally - I've been a lurking member, learning about the Superlite Coupe for about 2 years now. I finally placed an order for my kit earlier this week and am anxiously awaiting my "you're ready" call.

Planning to use a Chevy Performance LS3 with a Graziano transaxle - one of the parts I'm hoping to incorporate into the build that I think will be interesting is the gated shifter out of the Audi R8.

The car will probably be 75/25 street/track use.... living in Austin, my home track is COTA so I should have the opportunity to bring the SLC out a few times a year.

The couple SLC's I've gotten to ride in have been really awesome. Can't wait to get one out to a road course!
Best,
John

 

[Craig Sinasac]

Congrats John, as soon as I make sure I have the kinks worked out of mine, I plan to take it down to COTA.

What color are you thinking?

 

[John]

Welcome! COTA will be a fantastic place to play. I've also placed an order so perhaps we'll be able to run together some time down the road.

 

[A.J. Schreder]

Welcome! I'm very envious of COTA!

On that gated shifter, the issue is distance from the pivot point in the shifter box to the gate. You will either need a different shifter box (so it will mount much lower) or raise the height of the gate quite high. I recently made final design & fabrication decisions in that area, and didn't linger on the gated idea very long, even though I really wanted it. If you come up with a good solution I will be very frustrated ;-)

A.J.

 

[HCF - John]

Congrats John, as soon as I make sure I have the kinks worked out of mine, I plan to take it down to COTA.

What color are you thinking?

Hi Cam!
Definitely loop me in on your plans... it would be neat to have 2 out at the same time. Have a small group that would likely come out with us, that seem to bounce from Chin, MVP, Edge and Safe driver's events.

I ordered the car in Ninja Green after seeing how cool Fran's race car looked... leaning towards having it painted red. TBD!
Best,
John

 

[HCF - John]

Welcome! COTA will be a fantastic place to play. I've also placed an order so perhaps we'll be able to run together some time down the road.

Yeah, definitely!

 

[HCF - John]

Welcome! I'm very envious of COTA!

On that gated shifter, the issue is distance from the pivot point in the shifter box to the gate. You will either need a different shifter box (so it will mount much lower) or raise the height of the gate quite high. I recently made final design & fabrication decisions in that area, and didn't linger on the gated idea very long, even though I really wanted it. If you come up with a good solution I will be very frustrated ;-)

A.J.

Oh boy... that will be a bummer if it doesn't work.
I sprung for the CF interior, and already know the tunnel cover is too narrow and will have to be modified... really hope we can overcome. It's a really neat piece.

 

[Ron McCall]

Oh boy... that will be a bummer if it doesn't work.
I sprung for the CF interior, and already know the tunnel cover is too narrow and will have to be modified... really hope we can overcome. It's a really neat piece.

Can you please post a picture of the side and bottom of that shifter?

Thanks,
Ron

 

[HCF - John]

Sure - Best I have of the side

 

[PeteB]

Congrats on the order, welcome to the madness.

I would love to put that shifter in mine, but I'm afraid to ask what it cost:shocked2:

 

[Ken Roberts]

Here is a link for you. He used the Lambo gated shifter which is similar to yours. Give him a shout!

Lamborghini Gallardo transaxle (Graziano) and the GTM - FFCars.com : Factory Five Racing Discussion Forum

 

[Preston Brown]

I just ordered an R8 shifter for my Coyote-powered SLC. The supplied shifter for the Graziano just doesn't have a very positive engagement feel, and the side-to-side throws are extremely short. It isn't confidence inspiring at all.

 

[HCF - John]

Preston,
I think you'll like the R8 shifter - seems, once you get the hang of having to follow the tight patter, everyone loves it. I just hope to be able to make it fit and feel like it's at a natural height (and comfortable to shift).

The Weird Shifter That Made Audi’s R8 Sports Car a Legend | WIRED

 

[HCF - John]

By the way, if one's interested in just the cover and lower guide, I happened to buy one while I was trying to pull together pieces for the whole assembly. You'd want to measure the size of the shifter post and there may be some art to how far away from the supplied shifter its mounted to make sure the throws line up, but the pattern should work fine with the Graziano trans.

 

[Howard Jones]

John, it looks like I'll beat your car's delivery to TX. If all goes to plan, we'll be living in New Braunfels before the end of the month. Glad to see you went for it. Anything I can do to help, let me know.

Guys, wouldn't it be cool to have three of these things at COTA on the same day............commin soon.

 

[Doc Kaler]

Howard,

Welcome Pardner! Hopefully there will be four at COTA!

 

[Cam]

Congrats John!! Did you get street or race tail? 480 or 525hp ls-3? I bet you can stil make the shifter work. if you delete the audi bent sheet metal you are down to the cast portion. Even if it has to protrude from the CF tub a bit, you can fabricate a surround and make it the center piece. Plus you'll have Howard next door, he can fabricate anything! +1 on COTA...

 

[HCF - John]

Thanks Cam! Thanks again for the ride a couple months back!

I opted for the race tail and leaning towards the 525 motor, recognizing it might be a little lumpy.

I've chatted with Howard a bit via PM... I'll definitely have a few months to visit with him before mine is ready!