Hello Everyone,

Some of you may have heard of our products or used our services in the past. For those of you who have not, we would like to introduce ourselves to the NAM community. We are TyrolSport, a European car specialty shop located in New York City. We have been in business for 12 years, focusing on performance products and upgrades for VW/Audi/Porsche/Mini/BMW. Our revolutionary Mini products include our R56 Front Mount Intercooler and R50/R53 Rigid Caliper Sliders. We are now introducing a new member to our product line, the R56 Shift Rx.



TyrolSport strives to set itself apart from other products in the marketplace. Our Billet Shortshifter holds true to this philosophy, and once again our R&D team has delivered. Our design goals for the Shift Rx were the following:

1. Develop the highest quality product by using CAD development and modernized production processes

2. Create a short shifter that is easy to install using simple hand tools without a lift

3. Modify the shift feel as well as decreasing the shift throw

4. Allow for the modification to be easily reversible

5. Manufacture, prototype and final production components utilizing 100% American labor and materials

Our design process spanned two years, and included numerous prototypes of different design, construction, and function. Our design incorporated a water-jetted spline for our new shifter, which fits with greater precision than anything we could have in a casting (and even better than the OEM part!). In addition, the simpler two dimensional shift arm further empowered the engineering team to feature a dual-adjustable fulcrum by creating dual stud locations for end user adjustment.

Features from the final prototype include a through-cut TyrolSport logo as well as a hard-black anodizing to ensure years of corrosion resistance and quality appeal. The included lift-lever is laser cut 303 stainless steel and is assembled in-house at our shop in New York City.

The results:

20 minute installation

Adjustable 15% or 40% shift throw reduction

Motorsport inspired shift feel

Street and track tested

Created, prototyped and manufactured in the USA

The TyrolSport ShiftRx fits every manual transmission equipped Cooper and Cooper S R55, R56, R57 up until 8/2009 production

The TyrolSport Shift Rx is now available. Our introductory sale can be found on our site and will stretch through the end of Minis on the Dragon on May 6th

 

Oh how awesome that a vendor is making a shift-reduction kit that's mounted on the transmission input shaft.
Glad you guys are putting some the VW-tricks to the MINI platform.
I'm very excited to grab one of these and use it on my JCW.
Looking forward to updates, pricing and availability.

One question arises; is the lever still counter-weighted to provide a balanced shift throw?

- Erik

 

I got to try out a shifter on a buddies VW that was weightless, think it was called diesel geek?? I really liked how it felt. With that said, I would be interested in seeing one of these on my R56. Also as having interned at a machine shop in college, its nice to see more US made stuff

 

The shift lever is not counter-weighted. We originally incorporated a weight into the design, but found that we enjoyed the feel more without the weight (after trying out a rapid prototyped delrin piece). To make sure we were not crazy, we did a blind test with a non-weighed hard prototype on one of our test cars. The driver mentioned that it felt easier to shift (after trying to figure out what we changed).
The weightless version has endured NYC traffic for over a year - that's a lot of one-two shifts

 

This sounds pretty awesome.

 

Will this work on the R53 and how much?
How many miles of city driving on each reduction?
Thank you.

 

Gotcha; appreciate the info.

Great to see there's been a lot of real-world testing.

Looking forward to real images of parts, pricing and availability; thanks TyrolSport.

- Erik

 

Sorry, this is for the Mk2 only (R55 through R57 up until 8/2009 builds)
This equivelant part on the R53 is located in a tighter spot and would make the install very difficult, aside from clearance issues.

 

Good products that are made in the USA. Thats something I'd like to see more of. I will be keeping an eye on this piece!

 

The shifter still feels great!

 

Sounds like you've been a real-world tester, ya'?
Would love to hear more details on it from an end-user (if you're allowed to)...

- Erik

 

Ya. I had this on for the life of the car so I don't remember how the stock shifter feels like. But when I had the alta short shift kit w/ the tyrolsport shifter, the shifts were crazy short. I sold the alta ss because i wanted to sell the car but decided otherwise, after removing the alta ss the shifts remained short and precise.

I had a tranny mounted short shifter on my sentra spec v as well and it did wonders to the shift feel and shortened the throw considerably.

This is a nice piece considering the ease of install.

 

What is the price for this unit

 

Intro pricing will be under $200

 

waiting patiently. was going to get a cravenspeed SSK, but like the looks of this setup.

 

That's a price I can deal with. Can't wait to see the sale come up.

 

I'm pretty interested in this too! I was thinking about the cravenspeed SSK too, but this looks like a really nice quality product!

 

I'm interested in the SSK as well. What does the install consist of, do you need to take off the exhaust like with the other SSKs?

 

No, it on the input selector shaft of the transmission. From Tyrolsport themselves: "To get to the shifter: remove the 8mm screw holding down the coolant expansion tank, roll out of the way. remove the intake snorel (tube from front grille to air box). With the snorkel out, it is a matter of swapping over the cables and factory parts..."

- Erik

 

Nice, a lot simpler than the other SSks then. I'll be waiting for the sale

 

Maybe a group buy?

 

I like everything that I hear. Does the product come with instructions or is it self-explanatory?

 

There will be detailed instructions with images. At this time we are planning an introductory sale. We will keep NAM posted

 

Any update? I can't wait for this

 

We are about two weeks away from our next update. Parts are beginning to arrive from our manufacturers, while others are currently undergoing final assembly in-house in NYC.

We will keep you updated