The knob of knobs for the SMG review

[poss]

I recently purchased a Stormwerks knob for my E85 Z4 6-speed manual. Loved it so much I bought their knob for the SMG (and the boot surround also).

Here are my first impressions:

It's not until you remove the OEM SMG knob and boot surround that you realise they are the usual cheap pieces of chrome-plated plastic - The boot surround has alan-head screws that do nothing more than screw into the same surround plastic to give the realistic illusion it is a piece of metal doing something (until you remove it)

The Stormwerks SMG knob, in contrast, is a satisfying-to-grasp hunk of stainless steel - as is the surround, which unfortunately only comes with 4 pieces of double-sided tape to stick it onto the fake carbon fibre trim. Disappointing and useless. I ended up gorilla-gluing it onto the plastic trim. However, it is otherwise a work of art, as it is curved to fit the contour of the trim!

No doubt some will comment that I should do a SMG-to-manual conversion now I have a decent knob :-), but I really enjoy the SMG, and if I choose to enjoy otherwise I can enjoy my manual knob in the Zed.

[M3llowM3]

I have the smw handbrake, and had the full smg kit before I manual swapped. Quality kit for sure, loved having my hands on those paddles. Only issue I had was parking outside on hot days the knob became scorching hot, I always kept a microfiber in the car to operate the shifter in that case.

[Irhase46m3]

I recently purchased a Stormwerks knob for my E85 Z4 6-speed manual. Loved it so much I bought their knob for the SMG (and the boot surround also).

Here are my first impressions:

It's not until you remove the OEM SMG knob and boot surround that you realise they are the usual cheap pieces of chrome-plated plastic - The boot surround has alan-head screws that do nothing more than screw into the same surround plastic to give the realistic illusion it is a piece of metal doing something (until you remove it)

The Stormwerks SMG knob, in contrast, is a satisfying-to-grasp hunk of stainless steel - as is the surround, which unfortunately only comes with 4 pieces of double-sided tape to stick it onto the fake carbon fibre trim. Disappointing and useless. I ended up gorilla-gluing it onto the plastic trim. However, it is otherwise a work of art, as it is curved to fit the contour of the trim!

No doubt some will comment that I should do a SMG-to-manual conversion now I have a decent knob :-), but I really enjoy the SMG, and if I choose to enjoy otherwise I can enjoy my manual knob in the Zed.

Hi There - I have the paddle shifters and absolutely love them. You can see they are carefully thought-out and they are very high quality, I've had them for about 4 years now. As for the shift knob I could not pull the trigger because I can see it burning my hand (Cali heat) when it gets hot, instead I chose to go the e60 M5 shift knob route and recently changed it to the DMC shit knob which i have learned to like a lot, its definitely not as high quality as i thought but its weighted and feels just right when manually shifting, here is a pic:



All Best,
Irhase46m3

[dr_011]

this is probably gonna piss someone off, but i like this for my SMG;

[TexaZ3]

this is probably gonna piss someone off, but i like this for my SMG;

lol

[M3llowM3]

this is probably gonna piss someone off, but i like this for my SMG;

Most cost effective manual swap I've ever seen

[m3urthy]

Before I swapped to 6-spd (photo cred to @ImolaMedia: