We Got Our Hands on Minottek’s Miata Gated Shifter Kit

Last month, we ran a piece on the trick new gated shifter kit for the 1990-1996 Mazda MX-5 Miata from a little one-man shop calling itself Minottek. Hoping to see an example in person, I reached out to owner Ryan Conforti to ask whether he had any local customers. Upon learning that I have a 1990 Miata of my own in the garage, he offered to do me one better and send over a free review sample; I countered with an offer to cover his costs, digital hands were shaken and voila: I now have one of these beauties in my possession, and it makes a strong first impression.

Open the lid, and you get this nice little printed message from Ryan welcoming you to the “Gated Community.” The kit arrived well-packed and mostly without damage. The 3D-printed jig that holds the whole bundle together did break in a few places during shipping, but it still managed to keep everything properly aligned and the supplemental bubble wrap kept the parts that matter safe.

The rest of the kit is rather cleverly packaged, too. While the kit comprises a dozen individual components plus the necessary hardware, what you’ll extract from the box is essentially three items: a pre-assembled base, the new shifter itself, and a replacement “boot” trim piece to finish off your interior. Packaged within the shifter base assembly are all of the smaller components as well as the necessary assembly hardware. It’s quite tidy. The kit also comes with the necessary Allen key to remove the gate from the included lower shift boot/mounting plate assembly.

There are no physical installation instructions included with the kit, but the included QR code points to a full PDF guide that includes detailed disassembly and installation instructions with photos. I’ve delved beneath my Miata’s center console on more than one occasion; it’s not an intimidating process. These instructions will make it an absolute breeze for even the completely uninitiated. Kudos again for the attention to detail.

Next step: the installation itself. Your author’s humble 1920s abode sits just outside the city of Detroit, where winter has been conspicuously wintry this go around. As soon as I can comfortably banish the baby Blackwing from its relatively warm winter parking spot, I’ll have full access to my NA in order to give this a whirl. Stay tuned!

Done any shifter mods you’d like to share insight on? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com any time.

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