No not 50 years of Whalen, but 50 years of Mini
Doug over at Whalen shift machine has designed a special knob to commemorate 50 years of mini/MINI, he is doing a limited edition run of 50 knobs (each individually numbered) and Im in the middle of putting together a deal with him if we buy a few. Current price is going to come in about the 100 quid mark, the more people we get the more leverage we have to bring the price down a little. Now to those of you who havent used a Whalen Knob that might sound like a lot of money but those people who have used them will confirm that not only are they beautifully made they also give a more positive gear shift. he knobs are available in polished, brushed, bead-blasted, and combinations polished/brushed and bead-blasted/brushed. The first two pics below show the bead blasted, and the last pic shows the brushed (sorry I got that wrong earlier, if anyone wants to change the finish they have picked let me know).
Until I was looking at Dougs site I hadnt realised that the R56 knob was a different fitting, Doug can do them to fit the R56 but needs to know up front who wants R56 and who doesnt. Its also a little trickier to fit a R56 knob but nothing too difficult.
If people are interested post in this thread so I can get a rough idea of numbers (also confirm if your car is an R56). Only other word of caution , I have had 5 knobs from Doug and once I got stung for customs charges (although they werent much) , if I bring a lot of knobs into the country and get stung I will be expecting every one to chip in to cover their share of the charge, I will do some digging and find out what the approximate charge for a knob would be.
I also find the Whalen is a good anti theft device, if you remove the knob it does make it difficult to drive the car, but better still if you catch the thief you can wallop em with it , cause they aint half heavy
Anyway below are some pics of the knob, and Im going to stop typing now cause I feel like Im delveloping tourettes typing knob every second word
List so far
Martin Brushed
Gismo blasted (wants number 50)
Gismo blasted classic (wants number 49 <rolls eyes>)
Zimbo blasted R56
Volvic blasted classic (wants number 12)