What is a Short Throw Shifter

A short throw shift or a short throw shifter is an aftermarket product that some people have added to their cars. Typically this throw shift is some type of device that is in addition or replaces some parts of the throw lever in a manual transmission car.

• The throw purpose is very straight forward. The throw shifter decreases the distance your hand must move when you are changing or throwing  the gears. As a byproduct of cutting down the throw distance you also cut down the time it takes to go from one gear to another. On the street in a normal car in typical traffic the small amount of throw difference between this type of throw device and the factory throw mechanism would not make any difference.

• However let's change the conditions. Pretend you are in a race car, and you have to throw shift through the gears. The car does not accelerate while the clutch is in and you are making a throw shift. So if you can cut down the amount of time the throw shift takes, you can get improved performance.
• Sometimes people are confused as to how this works and they believe that if they shortened the factory throw shift lever they would have a throw short shift. Well the throw lever would be shorter but there is no effect on the angle that your throw shift shaft travels from one gear to another and so it does not reduce the shift angular amount. It might be a little harder to shift and, but no faster but it's not considered a true short shift.
•   Since a short shift decreases the time by reducing the angle that the short shift shaft travels when you change gears. This reduced or short angle reduces the distance your hand moves. Faster mean more ultimate speed with the short shift application.

If installed correctly you should get a more precise shift because of the reduced hand movement, usually a sportier looking and perhaps a short shift shaft, and of course better performance. If you are counting fractions of a second the short shift is something to consider.