Transmission

Question.Why do people say its better to have a manual tranny that an auto for racing.It seems that it would be pretty much the same.

Can someone explain to me why exactly it would be better or worse to have an auto or man.?

Ok since no one will reply, I might as well try. Having control of your gears instead of the car shifting itself regardless of the RPMs is very important in a race (except drag racing). When you attack a turn, in an automatic car, the car will up shift or downshift even when you don't want it to, so to upset the balance of the vehicle in the turn.
IMO, I only think an automatic tranny is good for drag racing and a turbocharger, because you don't need to let off the gas in order to shift gears. But however, I think you can SORT of control the downshifting and up shifting with the brake pedal (left foot on brake, right foot on gas).

Good answer. I want to add that the better throttle response you have the less of a difference it makes wether you have a manual or auto. Most old muscle cars run autos. Mainly because they were more common, but they also provide more consistant times. The acceleration isn't much different when you have a V8. If you have a 4 the difference is much greater. If you compare the 1/4 mile times of a WRX with auto and manual their is a full second difference between the two.

I heard somewhere that manual transmission puts 1.5-1.8 seconds onto your 1/4 mile time since you need to shift manually which usually takes 0.3 seconds each shift. (unless you have an automated clutch like the M3 or like those F1 cars.)

I see,so,good for drag,bad for doing whacky turns at 55.I should have known this.Thanks for the info.

I got a few more things to add, automatic transmission is generally good with forced induction because with a turbo or N2o system, once the car is on boost, it gives a big "shock" to the transmission, but because of the torque converter, it is much more gradual, and less of a shock. I am not too sure about superchargers though, but with a turbo, you don't really need a bypass/blowoff valve unless you let off the gas alot, during a turn you can even use left foot braking to keep the turbine spinning, so even in a circuit race, it's not too bad. IMO, everything has it's up's and down's, if auto tranny had better throttle response and the ability to control upshifting/downshifting with ease, I would think it would be better in some categories of racing.

i thought auto trans was bad because u loose loads of revs when shifting gears?

Automatics do cause slightly more drivetrain power loss than a manual transmission but it's really not that much. The difference between a 96 Camaro Z28 auto and 6 speed manual is .07 in the quarter. Sometimes less.

Also, when a turbo spools up. It doesn't "shock" the drivetrain. It is gradual, even if it's a T68 on a 960hp Skyline (yes, I DO know from experience). Also, many torque converters will lock after a pre-determined RPM anyway so there really isn't much of a difference.

Ultimately it boils down to this. A driver wants to be in COMPLETE control of his/her car when racing. There is no compromise. Automatics just place an extra "unpredictable" factor in the mix that could spell disaster.

Besides... what real sport-car owner would want an auto anyway?


Also the earlier remark about having more control over the gears on a road track is dead-on. When you are accelerating out of the apex of a corner and you have an auto. There is a possibility of the transmission shifting gears under full throttle, loosing traction, and sending you into the wall.

Manual add 1.5 sec? Check out car magazines, automatics add 1-2 seconds slower on the 1/4 mile.

If you power shift it's quicker than any auto tranny, need I say that auto's weigh a lot more & run hotter.
And that you lose a lot more power to the wheels?
it's not just on a road course, drag racing automatics run at least 1-2 seconds slower.

If you can't control the car, how can you race?

manual save gas too LOL sometimes