Our Verdict
Pros
- Smart design
- Brilliant build quality
- Good resistance between each shift
- Interchangeable gear knobs
- Easy to mount
Cons
- No sequential mode
- Can’t side or rear mount
- Slightly loud during use
MOZA has just released their first-ever shifter, and it takes the form of a 7-gear H-pattern configuration. This joins the recently released handbrake to finally form a complete lineup of sim racing products including wheels, pedals, a handbrake and a shifter. Check out our review of the recently released MOZA handbrake here.
The MOZA HGP review & unboxing
To quickly summarise, this shifter features 7 forward gears and 1 reverse. Both reverse and the 7th gear are locked and require you to push the gear lever down to engage. This is different from the MOZA SGP Sequential shifter giving a much more road-car feel.
The body is an all-aluminium design, leading to this sleek external aesthetic. Inside, there is a patented shock-absorbing damping system, which is designed for a realistic shifting feel. And there is also an auto-throttle blip system in there.
So yeah, as you can see, this shifter is pretty enticing straight off the bat.
The design of the MOZA HGP Shifter
Now, I’m not going to stray away from the obvious comparison, which is towards the Fanatec ClubSport shifter. This MOZA HGP shifter takes on a pretty similar form. The shape and size are both very close to the Fanatec model, and this has kind of been a trend with some of MOZA’s products. I’m looking at you, R9 wheelbase!
But MOZA Racing has obviously seen what works in the past and has used that as a baseline to work from. The Fanatec shifter has been one of the most popular sim racing shifters for years now, but that shifter is starting to show its age a little.
So, in comes the MOZA HGP shifter. While this shifter may look similar to other products I’ve just mentioned, it is slightly smaller. The ClubSport shifter measures 127mm wide and deep and the base sits 148mm tall.
In comparison, this MOZA shifter is around 140mm deep by 100mm wide, so slightly deeper due to its protruding mounting plate but slightly skinnier. The base sits at just 110mm, shaving off around 35mm in height.
So it’s slightly more compact and a little lighter, but the build quality is top-tier. The entire base is constructed from CNC-machined aluminium. And it feels like it could survive a drop from a pretty tall height.
The gear shaft is also constructed from aluminium and allows for customisable shifter knobs due to its screw functionality. The knob included is perfectly adequate. It’s smooth and finished in a black powder coat and feels nice in your palm.
The H-pattern slots blend seamlessly with the top plate, and a dust cover just underneath prevents dust from entering the internal mechanism and causing wear or tear over time.
Overall, this is a very smart-looking shifter, if not a little bulky in its design. There are larger shifters on the market, but there are certainly smaller ones as well.
How does this shifter perform?
So, let’s take a look at how this H-pattern shifter performs. And I have to say I really enjoy using it every time I jump into a manual car. Straight off the bat, you can feel how well-made this shifter is. I mentioned it in my design review earlier, but the all-metal construction helps this shifter shine. And that echoes through to the performance.
Each gear throw feels pretty heavy, meaning you do need to put a little bit of force into moving the shifter. This replicates a real-world car fairly well, and it is a feeling that many sim racing shifters fail to replicate.
With this MOZA shifter, the resistance is higher than most, and that’s good.
When you engage a gear, there is a satisfying clunk as the lever slots into place, and each engagement feels smooth rather than clunky.
There is a rather loud audible sound at the peak of each shift, which is a combination of the gear mechanism engaging and the metal gear lever making contact with the top plate. I would have liked to see some form of additional damping at the very peak of the gear lever travel to reduce the sound a little.
Resistance and smoothness
Moving through the gears feels nice. You can feel when a gear is disengaged and there is progressive resistance as you move the gear lever from side to side. Over time, I really got a good sense of where the gear lever was, thanks to this progressive resistance.
There are six forward gears in total, all of which feel really positive. There is also an additional seventh gear to the top right and a reverse gear to the top left. You need to push down on the gear lever to access both of these.
This solid feature prevents any embarrassing moments on track when I accidentally select reverse instead of first gear. The pushdown mechanic isn’t intrusive enough to stop me from using these two gears when required, although to be honest, I very rarely use either of them in the heat of a race.
One big issue with this shifter is the lack of a sequential mode. That is reserved for the sequential-only MOZA SGP shifter. Only an H-pattern mode is available out of the box, which is a big miss, especially as direct competitors do feature both H-pattern and sequential modes.
This means that if you want a sequential and H-pattern shifter, you’ll either have to look elsewhere or purchase a sequential shifter separately.
Auto rev-matching function
Now I want to quickly touch on the intelligent downshift function which acts as an auto rev-matching feature that is a big part of this shifter’s marketing. But as of the launch day, which is the day I’m releasing this review, I haven’t been able to test it.
MOZA hasn’t enabled this functionality yet but will do so just after launch, so it will be ready when customers receive the first shifters.
I won’t spend too much time on this feature because I won’t be able to test it. But I’m told it is designed to blip the throttle as you downshift automatically. This negates your need to use a heel-and-toe technique every time you downshift.
In theory, this sounds great for those who haven’t mastered the technique or sim race in socks and, therefore, find throttle blipping incredibly painful.
I will update this review, either in the description or via another video, once I have had a chance to try the feature out. I want to let you all know exactly how it works in practice and whether it’s a good addition. But for now, I’ll move past it.
Mounting and compatibility
And I’ll move right on to the mounting and compatibility. To start with, there is a serious missed opportunity in terms of the mounting. Whether it was for aesthetic reasons or for more technical reasons, there is no in-built way of side mounting or rear mounting this shifter to your rig.
Quickly touching on the Fanatec ClubSport shifter again, the body of that shifter featured a pretty cool design, allowing you to side and rear mount it with ease. But that functionality is missing here.
Instead, you must bottom mount this shifter, which was fine with my sim rig. But if you’re racing on an 8020 rig or short on bottom mounting options, you’re a little stuck. There is a desk clamp available but I’ve not seen this so I’m unsure if it would solve this problem. I guess that it won’t.
The bottom mounting options are quite good besides the lack of side or rear mounting options. A range of slot gaps and holes allows you to mount this from the top down. Or there are plenty of additional threaded holes underneath if you want to mount from underneath the shifter, which I’ve chosen here.
Once mounted, this shifter isn’t moving anywhere, so I’m perfectly happy with this aspect.
Regarding compatibility, around the back of the shifter, there are two options for connecting this shifter to your PC or sim rig. I say PC because, like all MOZA products to date, there is no console compatibility.
There is a USB connector and an RJ connector. You can use either of these to connect the shifter to your PC directly or to the MOZA hub, which I’d recommend. This route essentially reduces the amount of USB cables running to your PC.
Calibrating
Once you’ve mounted your shifter, the setup couldn’t be easier. Install the free Pit House software which can be found on MOZA’s website. Then, run through the shifter calibration. To complete this, you’ll have to wiggle the shifter from far left to far right.
It is important you do this, as the shifter won’t fully work in the game without it. I had an issue where it thought the first gear was third gear, but a quick calibration sorted this out.
Price
So now we get to the price. This HGP shifter will cost you $149, £139, or €159. When you compare that price to other products, it’s pretty high.
The Fanatec ClubSport shifter costs around $100 more than this, but it does have a few additional features. And the ever-popular Thrustmaster TH8A costs $20 more.
Compared with the TH8A shifter, which is roughly the same price, this MOZA offering looks and feels much more high-end. Ultimately, I think that price represents pretty good value for your purchase.
Should I buy the MOZA HGP Shifter?
The MOZA HGP Shifter is an exciting prospect. It looks smart and striking with its all-black aluminium design and sharp angles. And during use, it holds up extremely well.
While there are a couple of additional features I would have liked included, mainly a sequential shift mode. The H-pattern provides a nice experience thanks to its design, meaning it’s almost impossible to miss a shift.
At around $150, it does represent relatively good value. While it certainly isn’t the cheapest shifter available, its direct competitors all cost more than this MOZA shifter. This allows it to slot into a relatively large gap that hasn’t seen a new shifter product for a good number of years.
This shifter can be used with any other sim racing wheel or product, but it fits perfectly into the ever-expanding ecosystem that MOZA Racing is building. If you currently own any of MOZA sim racing products, or you simply like the look of this shifter over other offerings, then this shifter will slot seamlessly into your sim racing setup.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
