Hi all,

I came across an add that had the JCW light at over $300! (But I've seen it for about $250 elsewhere). Anyway, this got me thinking....



The JCW shift light is as basic a shift light as there ever was. It is only settable for shift point with set points only at multiples of 250 RPM (with dip switches buried somewhere inside its case). So using it you can really only get pretty close to many of the red-lines out there, especially if you’ve had yours changed with a tune. To make matters worse, it’s placed LOWER than the tachometer, removing it farther from your peripheral vision, exactly the opposite of where it should be. To top it off, it cost more than pretty much any shift light of its capabilities, providing a pretty poor cost/benefit ratio. It’s best features is that it’s a factory option, with a housing that matches the Mini interior.

The MSD 8963 shift-light is one of the better shift lights out there. It is programmable in shift point and supports a very rudimentary “multi shift” capability. It can count shift events and change the shift point as one rows through the gears. This is only useful to drag racers, and fails if a shift is missed or if one is on a road course where one shifts up and down through the gears. Adding digital (RPM only) control from MSD requires the use of separate RPM switch modules, that retail for $78.44 for a simple RPM switch, and $97.44 for a RPM window switch. Neither of these are speed sensitive, and a total equivalent package cost to what is in the ProShift is over $500. And this price premium still doesn’t provide user selectable display colors.

The FES ProShift exceeds both units in capabilities. Bettering the feature set of the MSD unit at a price less than the JCW unit were our goals, and we met both goals with room to spare. If you're interested in a shift light, you can't get a better unit than ours! And it's not just for track rats! The one I've installed in my wifes clubman is set to help get better gas mileage.

www.fes-auto.com

Matt

 

Hi all, I'd gotten some comments and questions so I figured I'd post them here:

From Minimarks:

Matt,
Does the shift light sequence through customer selected colors to a shift point or does it just light up at a selected RPM? Want to know the shift point is coming.
Thanks,
Mark

Answer: Each shift point has three numbers: "Get ready to shift", "shift" and "red-line". "Get Ready to Shift" and "Shift" can be set per gear, and "Red-Line" is a fixed number based on your engine and tune.

Follow on from Minimarks:
One other question I have is the dimming function; can it be easily adjusted for day night or is it mostly static?
Thanks again,
Mark

Answer: Not only are colors, color sequences and the like programmable, but so is intensity. But it can't be changed "on the fly". This may change in the future, but for now you set the intensity with the program, and while it can be changed, it doesn't change itseft as you go from daytime to night time.

Bahamabart wanted me to mention that for a bit more money, you can step up to things like the G-Tech. This is true but we limited the comparo to different types of shift-lights. The G-Tech is a nice unit (I used to have one) and it does have shift-light function, but we limited the comparisson to items that don't have LCD screens.

Matt