With over 2500 WEVO Shifters for the Porsche 915 and G50 transmissions in circulation across the early 911 community, this excellent product has proven itself to be a genuine improvement over the original. I have a Classic 915 shifter in my Orange car (bought and paid for by the previous owner) and I really do love it.
The WEVO Shifter is impressive on a number of levels, mainly in the actual hands-on feel of this superb product, but also because a man in a shed has outfoxed the design genii at Porsche. I use the phrase “man in a shed” in its most complimentary sense!
One of my favourite Ferry Porsche sayings is “an engineer should always try to solve a problem in the simplest possible way”. Any time spent working on a classic or impact bumper 911 proves this ethos was implemented throughout the gestation of the early cars. I’m sure the good Doctor would love the WEVO shifter.
Never content to rest on his laurels, WEVO’s Hayden Burvill is now working on a new development to his Classic Porsche shifter: the Tall Boy. The design differs to existing shift mechs such as the obtrusive and frankly unattractive Hargett, which I have tried in a number of early cars, by not angling the original shift linkage through a hole in the centre tunnel. The WEVO product uses the original shift rod, housing all the clever stuff in the shift tower. This is very cool – I can’t wait to try one for myself on our next visit Stateside. Further details of the Tall Boy project are on the WEVO blog.
What I love most about our old cars is that they don’t feel old. Running my 30 year-old 911 SC in modern California traffic last year was a breeze (pic below in LA traffic), and a whole lot more fun than the rental car we used on our first US trip in Spring ’09.
Effective update products like WEVOs 915 Classic shifter and forthcoming Tall Boy, Tuthill’s bolt-on billet brakes and amazing damper packages and the forged 17″ Fuchs wheels from Zuffenhaus that open up newer tyre tech options while preserving the iconic look and quality, keep the driveability of early 911s alive and kicking, and encourage us to derive maximum enjoyment from our cars for many years to come.
The early Porsche community is privileged to have people like Hayden at WEVO, Richard at Tuthills and Keith Walters at Zuffenhaus, who put so much effort into developing and delivering great products (at sensible prices, given the technology and R&D/manufacturing costs involved), rather than simply coming up with the low cost/high margin junk you see at so many other aftermarket suppliers. Hats must come off – respect to them all!
