LOL, anticipate all you want. Auto will still shift faster and more consistent on the strip.

 

lol I get the opposite reaction, on the street most don't even consider it being an automatic.. they always assume it's a manual. When I end up winning they are always suprised by how quick it is! and also, of course, 'why' did I buy an automatic. lol...

 

In a race...(street tires) it's really the manuals race to lose. The manual can launch at a much higher RPM. But, 99.9% of the time they can't hook without DR's or slicks. On street tires I haven't lost to a manual yet.

At the track...when they mount their DR's it's a different story. They beat me by .2-.4 10ths. They'll run anywhere from 13.75 on up. Where I'm a consistant 14.1x. I might mention that both of the GT's in my bracket class also have LT's and UDP's.

I'd need a T/C to run that quick. I'm still more consistant though.

 

This is just totally a personal preference thing. I got my first car 47 years ago and it had a stick. That was about the only choice for a car that a 13 year old kid could afford at the time.

Since that time I've totally lost count of how many cars I've owned, but I'm quite sure the number of automatics would be counted on one hand if I stopped to think it through.

I prefer to shift gears for myself. I take great pride in my abilities with a stick shift.

A co-worker told me a few weeks ago that the car makers are now talking seriously about eliminating manual transmissions since they are down to 12% of production. I was actually quite surprised to hear that it is as high as 12%. I don't know if he knew what he was talking about.

If he was right and they begin to do away altogether with stick shifts, then I know I won't ever be buying another new car. If I can't get it with a stick, I'm just not interested in driving it.

SOoo... from that, I think I am punctuating my statement that it is all about personal preference.

BTW, for that person that said his arm couldn't shift as fast as an automatic, that's him, not me.

My $0.02,
Doc

 

Lol. Never been to a drag strip in your life, have you, Junior?

 

i think most people don't like automatics is because of how they shift and how the power is delivered. In the manual it just feels differently, both in power delivery and how it responds when it shifts. If there were an automatic that felt like a manual does when it shifts then I bet most people would enjoy autos just as much.

 

The OP never asked whether autos were faster on the strip, he asked why people with manuals don't like autos.

The poster I responded to pointed out that an auto will shift quick on a drag strip.

I responded with a counter point not related to drag strips by pointing out that a manual allows anticipation of the proper gear. Since you only shift up on a drag strip, anticipation obviously doesn't apply on a drag strip.

Anticipation is extremely relevant to driving on roads or tracks, control is also relevant.

Auto's take time to downshift and give less predictable results in which gear they will downshift to.

 

You were talking about drag strips. I was talking about driving.

You pointed out where an auto is good. I pointed out where it doesn't matter that an auto can shift quick.

The OP asked why people who like manuals frown on autos. I gave him a reason. It's his car, he can choose what he likes, but his question indicated curiosity as if he wasn't aware of the joys of driving an American V8 through a gear box.

 

True, but unless it's a dedicated strip toy there really is more to the world of driving than drag strips laid end to end with stop signs, traffic lights, and the odd occasional turn in between where the fractions of seconds would keep adding up.

I'm probably as hard-core of a manual transmission fanatic as you're ever likely to run across, but I know for an absolute fact that if I was into drag racing I'd have to have an automatic to be even halfway competitive against most anything else of roughly comparable performance. My launching really does suck that bad, and I'm not the least bit interested in breaking stuff practicing to get better at it.

I've thought about this from time to time, so . . . FWIW and with no disrespect intended

The best I can figure is that it bothers people like me when the automatic shift programming does not line up precisely with their own decisions about when a shift should occur (or not), and how many gears are involved. It sure annoys the hell out of me on the rare occasion that I am forced to drive an automatic (think rentals, my Dad's car) and the damn thing upshifts too early for my taste, or drops down two gears instead of just one and sends the engine rpms racing for redline only to correct that with an upshift a second later. Auto tranny designers/engineers have their priorities, I have mine, and they don't line up very well at all.

I want to drive the car, not be trapped in a running battle with it. Perhaps if I was LESS aware of what the engine was up to at any given instant, I might not mind so much.


Norm

 

Ah, I thought you were implying that you could shift faster than an auto. I get what you meant now.