Some friends of mine were telling me that a good shift kit would allow me to upshift and downshift my auto without trouble. They also said it would make for harder shifts and better acceleration. Is this true? And if so, are there any tried and true shift kits for the S197 autos?

 

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but they don't make "shift kits" for the newer trannys. A good tune will change the shift points and line presure to make for more agressive shifting. I got my tune from Brenspeed and was really impressed at how much better the shifting felt compared to the stock tune.

 

There are some shift kits made for newer trannies, but not like they used to be. A shift kit a "manual" way of modifying the line pressure and shift points in an auto. Since the newer autos in our cars are all computer controlled, there is really no reason for an old style shift kit.

Just get an SCT tuner and tune from a reputable auto tuning shop and it'll bring all the improvement you're looking for.

NOTE: Notice that I said "auto" tuning shop. Not all tuners are created equal in this department. Stick with one that is really good at creating tunes for our cars with an auto transmission. I can recommend Brenspeed from experience, but have also heard that Doug from b a m a chips writes a really good auto tune.

 

Get a reputable tune....I chirp 3rd gear!

 

+1...get a good tune and your auto will run like it's had a shift kit installed!

 

They're right. The tune is the "shift-kit". I had automatics with B&M shift kits in my
turbo 350/400 in my earlier muscle cars. The tune can make it shift just as hard as
the old school shift kits. Plus, you can adjust it yourself by increasing/decreasing
the pressure with thetuner.

 

+100000... I still have a huge smile on my face from the first time I drove my GT after installing the 93 tune from Brenspeed, and chirped 3rd gear hard. BTW, that was over a year ago, and I'm still smiling. Brenspeed FTW.