When I first starting racing I had a stock valve body that had a shift kit or something done to it from many years ago that my dad did. We built a new trans and installed a reverse Cheetah valve body. Used it for I think 2 years and just didn't particularly care for the reverse pattern. At the time I had a Hurst ratchet shifter. We replaced the reverse Cheetah with a Forward Cheetah and have been using that for the last 15 or so years without any issues. I have since changed to the Turbo Action shifter as well. I just personally prefer the forward pattern. Didn't notice any ET gains when going from reverse to forward pattern either. Car ran low to mid 11's when the change was made.