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New Product: Compact MGW MT-82 Shifter

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By EditorTurner

New Product: Compact MGW MT-82 Shifter

Sleeker Shifter

MGW Shifters improves its 2011+ Mustang shifter for easier installation

By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of MGW Shifters

Shifter upgrades are among the most popular bolt-on parts for Mustangs. This is largely due to the factory’s strict adherence to noise, vibration and harshness standards. Keeping the stock shifter dead quiet and free from the slightest hint of vibration usually means using materials that give up some precision.

Designed to ease installation, the enhancements that set the MGW Compact Race-Spec shifter apart from the prior model is a smaller shifter base that can slipped onto the mount from the interior by way of the factory hole in the transmission tunnel. This shifter also comes complete, so there is no need to transfer any parts from your factory unit. This unit will be available to fit 2011-and-newer Mustangs with EcoBoost, V-6 or V-8 engines and the Getrag MT-82 manual transmission.
Designed to ease installation, one of the enhancements that set the MGW Compact Race-Spec shifter apart from the prior model is a smaller shifter base that can slipped onto the mount from the interior by way of the factory hole in the transmission tunnel. This shifter also comes complete, so there is no need to transfer any parts from your factory unit. It will be available to fit 2011-and-newer Mustangs with EcoBoost, V-6 or V-8 engines and the Getrag MT-82 manual transmission.

This is especially true on the modern Mustangs that employ remote shifters. The complex nature of these levers and their mounts combined with a malleable construction means that you give up some precision in your shifting. While the factory shifters have gotten a bit better over the years, they also have longer throws than most enthusiasts would want, which usually means we are seeking better manual-transmission shifters for our Mustangs.

If you have never experienced the transformative effect of installing one of MGW Shifters’ billet beauties in your Mustang, you have definitely missed out. We have run them in a number of our project cars and they deliver the kind of precision shifting and hastened throws a performance enthusiast wants in a shifter. And, they look more like works of industrial art than performance parts.

Like its predecessor, the Compact Race-Spec Shifter delivers a shifter that feels like a Toploader with internal mechanism because it mounts solidly to the transmission with billet strut arms and a solid linkage rod. Because it mounts so solidly to the transmission, the MGW shifter does not need to mount to the body, so the shifts are always precise even when you are banging gears on the racetrack.
Like its predecessor, the Compact Race-Spec Shifter makes your remote-shift transmission feel like a Toploader because it mounts solidly to the transmission with billet strut arms and a solid linkage rod. Because it mounts so solidly to the transmission, the MGW shifter does not need to mount to the body, so the shifts are always precise even when you are banging gears on the racetrack.

That said, MGW Shifters’ George Ciamillo is not one to rest on his laurels. While people who have installed the MGW Race-Spec shifter on 2011-and-newer Mustangs love it, they have wished for an easier installation process, and he has heard their pleas. We recently had the opportunity to preview his latest shifter, the MT-82 Compact Race-Spec, which offers that positive shift feel in an easier-to-install package.

“I am always trying to perfect our shifter, so I have listened to the feedback,” George explained. “And what I have done is I have gone and machined this shifter much more compact, so now it can actually fit inside the oval cutout of the car fully assembled.”

This means you can install the shifter mount and linkage on the transmission from under the car, then slip the shifter with the boot installed from the top through the hole in the transmission tunnel.

“Not only is it a huge convenience to do that—you save your time and your knuckles trying to get the boot on—but it knocks about 30 minutes off the installation time, which will be good for performance shops if you have to pay to get the shifter installed,” he added.

For more on the upgraded features of this new shifter and a tutorial on how to install it, watch this…

With precise shifting and an easier installation, the MGW MT-82 Compact Race-Spec should prove a popular bolt-on with the MT-82 crowd. The Compact version will replace the prior version in the MGW lineup, and should begin shipping in December.

MGW MT-82 Compact Race-Spec Shifter Gallery

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1 thought on “New Product: Compact MGW MT-82 Shifter”

  1. Functionally this version is essentially the same as the last, it’s just easier to install. The previous version is out of stock. These should start shipping by the end of the week. If you order a race spec this is what you will receive.

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