>I could get the Gladiator Mk II and know that at some point I could upgrade it to Pro internals?
if they ever offer this, then this is your answer:
https://vkbcontrollers.com/?product=gla ... g-bundle-2>if there could be a way to just drop the Gunfighter internals into the Gladiator base
yes, there's always
A way...sometimes it just involves epoxy and a soldering iron and weird bits sticking out of your stick because stuff wouldn't fit right. or you could end up with two dead, broken sticks.
you mostly want to end up with GF internals housed inside a base with all the extra buttons of the Gladiator? I didn't take my Gladiator apart when I had it, but I
highly suspect that there's electronics in the way of what you want to accomplish, even if you remove the Gladiator stick and gimbals and the GF housing. Maybe somebody else could chime in on what's inside the Gladiator base?
if you get lucky and there aren't electronic bits or structural bits inside the Gladiator base where you want to put the Gunfighter internals, you'd have to find a way to really anchor the GF bits inside the Gladiator base or else everything is going to be wobbly and you're not going to have a good time. The easiest way to do this would be to keep the GF bits inside the GF base and just bolt into that through the base of the Gladiator, but I can't imagine there's room for that inside the Gladiator base.
so while there is probably
technically a way to do it, there's probably not a good way to do it that you'll be happy with. maybe ask around on r/hotas or the discord if somebody has a Gladiator Pro they're willing to sell because they just upgraded to a GF themselves in this most recent batch.
or just get a non-pro Gladiator now and when you upgrade to a Gladiator Pro or GF or whatever the next product is, sell it to somebody that wants it and get most of your money back. the non-pro Gladiator is probably one of, if not the best, stick for under $100.
but let's agree that Mini is a pretty good car as is, and so is the Jaguar.