G25 Steering Wheel Current Gear Display Possible?

Hello everybody, I'm brand new to all things electrical and stumbled upon Arduino while randomly browsing ebay earlier and became intrigued. Now, first things first I am an avid sim racing guy and am currently working on a PS3 friendly 'button box' so I can adjust various ingame settings while driving. So, when I stumbled upon the Arduino dot matrix setups I immediately went about researching to see if what I want to do is possible. Due to my noviceness in this aspect of life I got the impression it could be done but had a lot of trouble deciphering througj the tech talk to be able to say for sure.

So, the plan is to take apart my G25 shifter and run wires from each gear position detector, then, using these wires through some sort of arduino magic make the gear number (either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or R) show each time I shift gears and stay until I change again.

That's it for a start and basically, all I want to know is...
A) is this possible to do?
B) do I need a computer hooked up to the arduino magic box for this to work?
C) what do I need to buy to make this work?
D) is this what you would recommend for me to do, or is there a quicker/easier/more cost effective way for me to get the desired effect.
E) would it be possible (way down the track as I gain experience) to set up a sound-activated shift light through this very clever tech?

Thankyou for taking the time to help out a complete noob with this and I look forwad to seeing what you guys think!

so basically you want to make something like a semi auto system.
if that the case then look for any semi auto car setup. you should not how it look like.
anyway to answer your question
a)yes
b)yes but only in the programming stage later it could be stand alone
c)this one would be a lengthy discussion
d)again a lengthy discussion
e)yes...

Thanks for your answers, mate, the more I study this stuff the more ideas find their way into my head... I think the current gear indicator would be a good and relitively basic starting point to help myself try to figure out the basics of wiring and programming Arduino.

So, to ask one more question, what Arduino board would I need to make this current gear dot matrix styled indicator work? Would even the bottom basement board do the trick or is there a specific one I should chase up?

any arduino would be fine