I hear a lot of people talk about manuals being faster, or less sluggish than autos.......but living in Las Vegas.....I can't justify having a manual. I'm sure I'd enjoy all the shifting and such for a while......but in the stop and go crap, I'd rather just sit back and have the auto take care of things for me.

Anyway......what makes a manual tranny quicker? Is it a weight issue? Is it that you can get the RPMs up before dropping the clutch?

I've been driving a an auto 240 volvo for a long time.......and in all the good match-ups I've had with people who decide they want to race me for some reason......a lot of times it's when they shift gears in their manuals that I take them. Maybe they're just slow shifters.......but in that short time it takes them to switch gears..........I've pulled on them.

So fill me in please.

KiL

 

First off, autos rarely want to bring your engine to the 7k redline range where it is in (in most cases) the strongest part of its powerband. In my experiences, even when you floor it, autos usually only get you to about 5k rpms. This makes for a loss in speed.

Secondly, manual transmissions have about a 1 second delay between shifts, as to make the ride smooth and not jolty. This 1 seconds is a pretty long time, when most good drivers can shift in about .2 or .3 seconds.

Thirdly, but not really important, manual is a couple hundred pounds lighter.

Fourthly, automatic transmissions can slip easily, robbing your power.

Fifthly, you can drop the clutch at say 3500 rpms with a manual, where as you cant with an auto.

Manuals are def faster by a decent amount.

 

Goes both ways with a manual. If you know how to drive it then you are going to be faster then your auto counterpart but if you are shifting out of the powerband everytime then you might as well get an auto because you're going to be slower.

Also there is a little more drivetrain loss with auto since torque converters are not always efficient.

I commute an hour to which 20 min of it is bumper 2 bumper and I still love my 5 speed.

 

also, manual is safer. It keeps you a lot more focused on driving. Same with big rims and low profile tires, you always have to scan the road really hard to avoid potholes.

does the scion auto use a belt drive torque converter?

 

okay I drive a manual, and always have.. I know how much more of the car you can feel when driving, but it's like Scionic said, depends on your familiarity with it. If you are familiar with it you're good to go, but if not it can be a big distraction and drag

 

to become familiar with it you have to be a beginner at some point....

my parents made me get a manual 1989 accord for my first car (2500 dollars baby) because they felt it was much safer. Keeps ya focused.

 

Beside everyone should have fun with there stick especially if you are teaching a girl how to use it!!! :mrgreen:

Sorry couldn't help it and I'm bored at work.

 

lol! I know how that goes.
My favorite part about stickshift is that my fiance doesn't know how to drive it...hence I don't have to worry about her stealing my xB! :P

 

also if you plan on doing any performance mods to your car a manual tranny will show significantly better gains than an auto car. also a manual car is way more fun to drive than an auto.

 

i think a key to a manual tranny is that you actually get to do the driving instead of just basically steering it with an auto.

 

whenever i drive an automatic i get grand theft auto 3/vice city flashbacks and i start driving the same way in reality(i.e. ebrake slides and jumping off random slopes) . Or i just zone out and speed everywhere. I was actually thinking of getting the xB with an automatic since i wasn't counting on stoplight racing. But after making my wife learn to drive stick on the maxima she insisted we buy a manual for the next car. but im glad we did it just much more enjoyable in the end. It keeps me out of trouble and focused on the car and the road. I live in vegas too and i understand what you mean about stop and go but at the same time we don't have a 405 or a 91 like most of the guys on this board. And most of them drive manuals anyways. just spend one or two rush hours in a manual transmission car on one f those roads and you'll never complain about driving a stick in vegas again.

 

But I'm one of those idiots that's always pretended my auto was a manual anyway..........powershifting to get that extra 5-10mph out of a particular gear, that the auto didn't like to give me on its own. Of course.....I've probably brutalized the hell out of my tranny that way.........but my Volvo has taken the abuse nicely.

And, to get those RPMs up before launch........you can always neutral drop your auto tranny..........if you don't much care to ever use it again.

KiL

 

"Anyway......what makes a manual tranny quicker? Is it a weight issue?"

Weight is a small part of it, but the bigger reason is from drivetrain losses. An automatic transmission -- due to its design -- puts less HP to the wheels. Having said that, if your vehicle has enough HP & torque, an automatic tranny could be faster in the 1/4 mile.

 

I think you're also all forgetting that in the XB's case a huge amount of speed is gained in the shorter gear ratios. Big difference from the auto.

 

A lot of the "quickness" of a manual is due to the driver being able to rev the engine before the car starts rolling. The energy built up in the rotating mass of the flywheel translates into a hefty little push in the back that makes a car feel quick.

I have a feeling (yet to be verified by someone braver than I) that an automatic xB *might* be a bit faster in terms of top speed than a manual. The lock-up torque converter allows efficient power transfer, and the taller final gearing of the auto might allow the car to go a bit faster before running out of gears.

George

 

thank you george, for a long time 2 speed auto have been used in most 9-11 second quarter mile cars. most die hard drag raceruse an auto for more consistency. Mind you these are not stock auto and been tricked to max, Bill

 

No kidding! An auto xB would launch just fine with a torque converter that stalls at 5500RPM! Of course, that wouldn't be very good drivetrain for street use!

The biggest problem in the high end drag racers is not power, but avoiding wheelspin. Torque converters and auto transmissions minimize variation in the torque delivered to the wheels, so the wheels aren't as likely to break loose.

With our little 105hp monsters, it takes quite a lot of effort to break the wheels loose, so the manual tranmission can be used to give that initial surge without too much worry of spinning the wheels.

George

 

speaking of breakign wheels loose, is it possible to do with an XB? I have yet to get mine (coming in a couple weeks), and i know I can do it easily with my dodge grand caravan. Does the XB have enough power to get a screech in dry weather?

 

oh yeah! ive got 1st and 2nd gear scratch but to get second you need to turn the tc off. But im rollin stock tires and id say they are pretty easy to break loose.

 

Carful man, thats what kills tha automatic trannys in all cars. Too many nuetral drops can cause your tranny to burn out the clutchs. Once the clutchs are burned out, the car is in nuetral in any gear.