With the seat moved back in the car the shifter will also be moved back. It looks to me that with where the shifter is located now I can run a solid rod from the shifter to the trans and make a much more direct connection than having a cable with a big loop in it.

The rod will need to have a slight S shape to it but that shouldn't be a big problem. It only takes a few pounds of force to move the shift lever on the trans so I think it will work. The factory shift rods ran all over the place and they seemed to work.