HAY GUYS

Duo Maxwell · 01:06 AM

Every car I've owned has been a manual.

A lot of people talk about "multitasking," really if you're behind the wheel you shouldn't be doing anything other than driving. Even so, shifting and doing other shit ain't that hard. If it is, you might just be horribly uncoordinated.

It's become like walking for me. I have to make a conscious effort to not try to shift when I'm driving someone else's car.

Automatic is for old people and idiots. It's inefficient, expensive to repair and boring as hell. Plus, controlling your speed is much easier with a manual, because of EBE and clutch/accelerator footplay.

Quote:

And when you have that many gears, automatics can accelerate between all the gears faster than manual input could, unless you're driving a Ferrari with electronic clutch....

Automatics are really slow when it comes to gear transitions. The clutch engages really slowly compared to what someone could do with a nice four-puck ACT and the right tension on the linkages.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Duo Maxwell · Local time: Jul 21, 2007, 10:33 AM

Quote:

So you have never owned an automatic and can't really speak from experience. That is good to know.

Except that the first car I drove was a 1975 Monte Carlo (Automatic). All of my parents' cars that they've owned since I've been old enough to drive have been automatic: Volvo S70T, Infiniti G35, Mitsubishi Montero Sport, Mitsubishi Endeavor, Mitsubishi Galant GT.

I've also driven many other "sports" or "competition" style automatic vehicles: (mostly tiptronic equipped porsches) 911 Targa4S, 911 Turbo, Cayenne Turbo, Mercedes SLK55 AMG... the list goes on.

The problem is not in the mechanics of the system itself, is that all of these systems are computer controlled, which it has to make immensely complicated calculations and "guess" what the driver wants to do. So, yeah, in a straight line and just mashing the gas, once the CPU adapts and you're out of first gear, you'll get great response times, but this philosophy breaks down when you're dealing with cornering and then having to maneuver coming onto the freeway in traffic.

Manual removes all of the guess work.

There's nowhere I can't reach.