From Geo Metro to Performance Car | Veloster N Short Shift Trans Adapter

On a performance-oriented car such as the Veloster N the shifter should feel just as good as the car performs. The Veloster N is a wonderful performer in stock form especially when equipped with the Performance Pack. That performance pack adds an electronic LSD, Valved Exhaust, as well as larger brakes and,19” wheels. Around a track, the Veloster N is an absolute blast, but we noticed a bit of an issue with the shifter in stock form. Throws were on the longer side and the shifter lacked confidence. We found ourselves looking at the gear indicator far too often because there wasn’t enough feedback in the shifter to tell exactly which gear we were in.

Our engineering team started by looking at each component individually. The shift lever, shift knob, transmission selector arm, and all of the bushings were closely analyzed to find room for improvement. We certainly found places that we can dramatically improve the shifter feel. 

We started with shortening up the throws. There are 2 ways that we can do this, and both have to do with the geometry of the shifter cables. On FWD manual cars you generally have 2 shift cables controlling the gear selection. How these cables are attached to the shift lever and selector arm dictates how your shifter throw will be. If the cables are attached far away from the fulcrum point, the throws will be much longer than if they were closer. Bringing the cables closer to the fulcrum means more effort to move the lever. Our engineers set out to find the perfect middle ground; firming up the shifts without adding excessive force to the mix.

Which leads us here, we set out to develop a piece that bolts directly to the transmission arm. Our goal is to bring the cable attachment point to the perfect location shortening shifts without adding excessive force.

The first step in this journey is to remove the stock selector arm and utilize our Romer CMM (coordinate measuring machine) and reverse engineer the stock selector arm. This allows us to input the exact position of the fulcrum, arm, and any mounting points. We then take all these measurements and import them into our CAD software.

Once importing them into our CAD software we design a piece that slides over the stock arm and allows the cable to be attached much closer to the fulcrum. In the case of the Veloster N we also wanted to bring the lever a bit closer to the steering wheel. We felt as if the lever was just a bit far of a reach from an aggressive driving position, remedied nicely with just a touch of geometry. The less time spent with one hand on the steering wheel, the better.

Once we finalize our design we 3D print a prototype for fitment purposes. After a few hours of printing the transmission adapter is ready to be installed on the car for final clearance checks. Once everything checks out, we send the file to our milling department so they can make a few prototypes from billet steel.

Once they come off the mill they get sent over to our assembly department. Here they will press in the shifter pin, as well as pair together any necessary hardware. Then they hand it back to our engineers, we install it on the car and head out on the road. We put a number of miles on the car with the trans adapter installed ensuring there are no issues. There is no better way to test a product than to bring it into a real-world situation. Once we are satisfied with the final product, we release it to the public.

This transmission adapter really makes the Veloster’s shifter feel like it should from the factory: short, crisp, and much more engaging.  It feels blissful rowing the gears now, after all there is nothing more satisfying than a nice quick gear change in a manual car. Especially that high RPM 2-3 change accompanied by the noise this car is so well known for, those pops.

These adapters are on our website now!