C'mon, having a manual in a sports car has nothing with being macho. But trying to justify an automatic against a manual is pretty amusing.
First of all, Schumacher's F1 tranny is a
manual transmission with hydraulically actuated clutch and shift rods. The Tiptronic has neither of these. The Tip is a torque converter automatic transmission, just like every other automatic transmission. Ferrari, BMW (not Steptronic), Aston Martin and Toyota (MR2...
)offer a true sequential manual. The 2 have as much in common as Rosanne Barr and Catherine Zeta. I know you've got cars to sell, Bruce. But please...
Sequential shifters will blip the throttle and do a perfect rev matched downshift. Regular automatics can't. With sequential, you can hold a gear thru the corners (same as a manual). With an automatic, you hope it doesn't upshift on you during a corner (or worse, kick down a gear and upset the car's balance). Sequentials can shift as fast as 50 milliseconds. Regular autos can't.
Sure a novice can be faster with an automatic on a track. But why stop there? Let's program the Navigation to control the steering wheel too. Surely the computer would be able to run a more consistant line and be faster. Take away all the things that make driving fun and what's the point? If you can't work a manual, well...start learning.
Any car that I'd buy for mundane transportation would be an automatic. So I have nothing against autos. But for my fun cars they'll always be manual.
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