V gate shifter history
 

Does any one run one?
History on the shifter, who was the first Mr Gasket or Hurst.

Thanks
Bernhard

I used to now that lol. Losing my memory. The Mr G shifter was clearly a better design and rolled over Hurst in sales.

They both came out about the same time approx 1971.HR or CC did a Sema type story on the Mr gasket shifter in 1970..it was a pre production type unit.

Actually the Bieber shifter predated them both but it was drag racing only. Motion put a Bieber in one of their cars

I had a Mr Gasket vertical gate in my old F85 (now Dan Reimer's car). Great shifter and just felt rock solid. The action was easy to get used to and pretty intuitive.

The obvious downside is having to slice up your floorpan to accommodate one of these.

I've got 2 of the Hurst shifters. One of them is probably going in my Chevelle. I was going to use one in my Camaro, but I thought I would get tired of pulling up on the T every time I downshifted. I've got a Super Shifter with the separate reverse lever going in the Camaro now.

You can not miss a shift with this shifter, the original owner of the car built this custom trans tunnel for this.

The cover is great but the huge machanical linkage is the real beauty that lies underneath!!

Come on Dan give us a picture of the inner workings!!!!

Ryan

PS: I still think about my visit to the Day-2 Speed Shop :-)

Ryan do you have those pictures? I can not find mine pictures, if you do please feel free to post them.

I will find them!!!

Ryan

Had both, still have a Mr Gasket. I can shift as fast with a Hurst SS2, but sometimes that short throw works against you as it's hard to get a positive feel with it if you get what I mean.

IIRC, Hurst designed the Ram Rod in the late 50’s but didn’t produce it. Then Mr. Gasket came out with the V-Gate in the early 70’s which pushed Hurst to start producing the Ram Rod.

As far as which one is better is very debatable......all I can say is I’ve heard a lot more complaints about the V-Gate than the Ram Rod. The main complaint is getting caught between gears and the two finger T-handle is hard to reach. Another is not being able to downshift when the vehicle is moving. I can tell you that I absolutely love my Ram Rod.....it’s very solid and a much simpler design compared the V-Gate.

Just my $.02.

Kurt