Quote:
Originally Posted by AlterZgo
I agree with almost all of what you're saying, but I chuckle at the comment that the manual has never been about having the fastest car. I guess you must be pretty young as even back maybe 20 yrs ago, the manual versions of most cars were almost always the quickest and fastest variants, and typically by a wide margin. Look up any old R&T or C&D car test and if they have an auto vs. manual variant, you will see that the manuals are typcially about 1 second quicker in both 0-60 and 1/4 mile acceleration times than the automatics.
Even Porsche GT cars were exclusively manual until the 991 GT3. Not only that, but the McLaren F1 was the quickest accelerating and fastest top speed car for about 15 yrs and it had a 6 speed manual.
Of course, manuals were not always just about speed, but about the joy and experience of feeling directly connected to the transmission and what's going on with the car. Even though the G80 M3 6MT is underpowered and undoubtedly slower than the auto, I will 100% be getting the manual. In the past 20 yrs or so, I've made the mistake of buying 2 automatic cars. Both cars, literally as soon as I brought them home, I would immediately begin thinking about how to get rid of it and get back into a manual.
I'll keep buying manuals as long as they make them and when they finally stop, instead of buying an automatic, I'm going to go right to the electric powered self driving egg with no steering wheel and no transmission controls.
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I'm sorry... you've definitely got this backwards. Older manual cars weren't quicker by design.... they were quicker because automatic gearboxes weren't nearly as advanced as they are now. Performance cars were manual by default, and automatic was an added option (if it was even available). So the car was already quick and already a manual, it was never about making it a manual for the purpose of being faster.
If you take equally specced performance cars today, one with manual, one with automatic, the automatic will always be quicker.
There's 2 reasons manuals are disappearing today:
1) In high performance cars, modern automatics are significantly quicker. A human can't even hope to shift as quickly, and where speed/performance is the name of the game, you go with the more efficient option.
2) In regular consumer cars, manufacturers don't have incentive to try and steer the market one way or another in regards to gearboxes. They're simply responding to market demands. If most people choose automatics, it's not because of some conspiracy to kill manuals, it's because most people (shockingly, most consumers aren't car enthusiasts) prefer to not have to shift their own gears.
I'm not pro auto or manual, I see virtue in both, but today, the ONLY reason to offer a manual in the US market is because of enthusiasts preferring to shift their own gears as it offers additional driver engagement. Unfortunately, enthusiasts represent an extremely tiny minority of the auto consumer market.