Hyde, I never felt the longer shifter so it's hard to compare. But shifting is NO problem at all with the short shifter. I also reversed the TKO 500 shift plate on the transmission and moved the shift lever position fwd about 2.5 inches. Makes for a really nice setup. The picture below shows the short shift lever and the reversible plate. (however, picture was before the plate was actually reversed, but you can see the potential fwd movement.) The final position is shown in the picture of my interior in my previous post.
