yeah ok Deano/Cal/Same thing
Kelly, I think what Adam's point is...and something I've tried to stress repeatedly, is that the Automatic car will ALWAYS be more consistent. Too many people - as is obvious by threads like these - think that they are driving gods, and not to criticise people's driving skills and whatnot, without knowing them (not that I put much faith into people statements of their own skills when they have no other reason to back it up...other than if I see it firsthand), but it is much easier to drag race an Automatic car. You don't miss gears, you don't slow down if you can't change gears as fast as a professional can, cause the car can do it for you, so may have very well lost out by mere 10ths of a second, but whereas you floor the car and are off, the driver of the manual car would have to be an expert at pulling off of the line, and changing gears going down the strip. Whereas you ride the brakes at the line, foot off the break and foot on the floor and hold on.
People give human error far too little credit...it's there, and it's why you can't sensibly compare the performances of the 2 transmissions, unless you are, a professional drag racer and can shift gears properly. Was going to point people to a site like Lets Torque BHP for statistics, but they don't differentiate the Auto & Manual cars in their lists...except for the DB9 after a quick scan. It should be common sense, that a Transmission that a) weighs more, a lot more than a convential manual transmission, and b) that creates a slightly (and I mean SLIGHLTY) greater amount of drivetrain power loss, and c) in the Starlet's example, contains fewer ratios (and hence is less accelerative in the ratios) would be ever so slightly slower.
Now, I don't pretend to know it all, but car's are my passion (and not a "Yeah, I modify my car cause it's my passion type thing), but it's my passion - ever since I was a toddler, it's all I ate, slept, and thought of, heck, I study it at University and plan to work in the industry for the remainder of my life. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that for as long as I could read I've researched the Automotive/Motorsport field....and everything I've read says that Automatics suck
Hehe, but no, it's just common sense that taking into account the aforementioned negatives, the manual transmission isn't without fault too - whereas it's not the transmission itself that could be too blame for performance (though you can get manuals that inhibit it, like the stupid Gated transmissions on Lamborghinis, Ferraris etc...), the USER of the transmission is wholely responsible for the performance. Put simply, it's the user that will dictate how well the transmission does it's job. So that would explain why people that have driven both cars would think the same scenario (to clarify, I've only very briefly driven an Automatic, and I have driven two Automated Manual Cars, but they cannot be compared cause the gap between pulling the gear paddle and gear activation conform to make you THINK the car is slower than it really is) - do you REALLY think you can extract the most performance out of a Manual? And if so...according to who? Your own opinion??? Now really...
I think the only way this sort of silly discussion could be settled is for an independant comparison by....wait for it....a professional! For example, get Keiichi Tsuchiya to clone himself, and drag the 2 cars. That will end all this egocentric banter. But that's never gonna happen so hey-ho
And besides...who seriously cares which is faster? Will it affect your life in any which way?