pros and cons?

 

Auto, no clutch in traffic.
Manual, nothing but pure fun to drive.

 

so theres no difference in acceleration?

 

stock vs stock manual will be faster.

 

Stock vs stock, Motor Trend got identical acceleration 0-60 times auto and manual. In my world that means in my hands the auto is faster b/c my ego isn't so big that I think I can shift a manual tranny as fast as an automobile magazine editor/ professional driver. Even if years of practice made me THAT good the 1-2 tenths of a second defference would'nt be noticable.

 

Hey lets think for a second. Manual 3.55 gears, Auto 3.3x gears. I CAN'T IMAGINE WHICH IS GOING TO BE FASTER!!! Ford programs the auto so it shifts for best fuel economy, not for performance. The auto is very laggy and I could feel a huge difference when I drove the auto compared to a manual. If you got a good tune on the auto and some better gears, it would be much closer.

Magazine writers are not hired because they can drive, they are hired because they can write.

 

Although it is true that the differential gears are lower with the Tremec 3650, what is the transmission gearing in the auto? Does it compensate for the higher gear ratio its rearend sees ?

The biggest drawbacks I can see with the auto, is that later down the line if you plan on getting really nasty with the engine i.e. bigger cam, headwork, high stall converter....it becomes much less streetable than the manual.

 

If you're going to go over ~450rwhp you should start thinkin about finding a new trans.

 

I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of the automatic tranny. I'm glad I got it instead of the manual.

Steve

 

Ditto... no regrets. Auto works great for a daily driver in SoCal traffic. Plus, I haven't had any problems with the TriAx shifter... bwahaha...