By itself, it’s a wholly unremarkable ball of aluminum with a black textured finish, measuring roughly two inches in diameter. Featuring a collar at the bottom, the item is drilled and tapped with a common 10 x 1.25mm thread, meaning it’s meant for more than just a single application. Though it isn’t trimmed in diamonds or adorned with platinum, it is, by my reckoning, the most expensive shift knob in the world.

I am in no way referring to its original purchase price, which probably wasn’t more than $30 when I ordered it from Team Voodoo (whose Pollo Rampante mascot was a gentle poke at Ferrari’s Prancing Horse) roughly 20 years ago. Instead, I’m referring to the cars I’ve placed beneath it over the years, which when tallied reaches a sum large enough to buy a nicely restored Porsche 911 SC, or a similarly show-worthy pre-1971 Mustang Mach 1 or early Camaro Z/28. In some areas – southern Vermont excepted – the accumulated sum total of roughly $70,030 would probably buy a modest two-bedroom home.

Instead, my Voodoo knob has crowned the shift lever of my first-generation Mazda Miata, an Acura RSX Type S purchased in a fit of de-cluttering and later sold to my brother-in-law, a third-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata (purchased in the first year of the model, in violation of one of my own cardinal rules), and now, another third-generation Miata in the exact configuration I’ve been seeking for the last three years. Or, if I’m honest with myself, since I mistakenly sold my last one in 2011.

A widespread search for the perfect shifter knob.