lol i have a friend that has an auto supra.. and another friend who has an auto RSX. i have an auto tC right now but before this, i had a boosted manual rsx (stolen engine -- long story). but anyway, my friends actually shift gears with theirs and they get good results rather than flooring it on D. their track times were different too.. but by half a second.

 

mmm, tell them to get a stick shift and stop ruining their transmissions.

 

Wow. I'm wondering how he convinced himself that the high rpms and super-slow acceleration were normal.

 

manually shifting an auto really does hurt the tranny?

 

2 friends blew their trannies after doing it all the time, while "racing"

 

I'm going to take this opportunity to dispel a myth.

Many people think that an automatic transmission car is slower than a manual transmission car because a person can "shift faster" with a 5-speed. To combat this, they drive their automatics using the 3-2-L gear selectors against putting it in drive.

This is not the case. They actually shift faster than the vast majority of drivers can. Auto transmission are slower because they lose more power to friction than a manual. Manual tranny cars lose between 12-17% of their engine power to heat and friction of the transmission, and autos lose 19-25%. It varies model to model. In addition, an automatic tC is slower due to taller gear ratios, which allow a higher speed per gear at the cost of acceleration.

You will not be any faster overriding the automatic transmission's computer. Put it in drive, and leave it. The only time to use those gears is in emergency situations where you're trying to tow something, get out of mud, etc.

And for the sake of your motor... don't rev it up in neutral and then dump it into drive. Your torque converter WILL take a ____ and leave you stranded one day, and cost over $1000 to rebuild.

 

^
Good info, thanks.

One question though, why is it that manufacturers usually give automatics one less gear? Is it just the cost factor?

 

because the gears are taller.

not all manufaacturers have 4 speed auto's though. newer more expensive cars like the BMW 7 series have 7 spd auto's.

 

It's a combination of cost factor and design factor.

If you look up how an automatic transmission works, you'll see that it is a combination of "sun", "planet", and "ring" gears. The gear you're in is a result of which is acting as the input shaft, and which are working to transfer the power to the output shaft.

4-speed autos are easy to make and somewhat cheaper. I haven't looked up how a 5-speed does it, but I'd imagine it involves much more moving parts. Therefore, I'd suspect that these companies would only adopt a 5-speed auto when more performance (either speed or towing) is required.

 

for ours ... yes... any decent car 25k and up has five gears... anyways... anywho, for the person who started this thread... i would wish that stories like this remain silent because i already see our cars taking the slow decent towards civics accords and preludes due to people like this... we already have people driving TCs around with unpainted body kits, 20's on a front wheel drive "sports car" and engine bays with non factory wires running all over the place, coffee can exhaust canisters running straight pipes, rims without lowering it, people putting universal medal spoilers (i prefer to call them schick spoilers in comparison to schick razor blades) and hoods that fit like total crap... to top it all off some company makes altezzas for our cars now... i refuse to see our car go to that low of a level... for christ's sake people all of us who own these cars had to buy them new or darn friggin close... i mean if you have the 15 gs to buy the car do the stuff right and stop rigging it up like some retard and do it right... why would you buy a brand new car just to screw it up??? I just don't understand people...................

 

sorry for the rant... i just hate to see our great platform sink into the utter depths of ricedom....

 

True. True...

Take pride in your work... whether it's customizing or just driving...

 

When I first test drove my car, I did put it in third "unknowingly" and drove it. The salesguy was discrete, and toggled it to the right.
Stick shift owners don't know this; when you shift the handle down towards the left, the "D" is at the same notch level as the "3", you would then have to toggle it once to the right to get it in "D."
...so give the guy a break

 

You're that lazy to not look at the gear indicator on the instrument cluster, nor notice how to even shift the car into drive in the first place?

 

very well said, i agree with all your points.

and for the record, nology spark plug wires are rice and provide no help to our cars in stock form haha

 

yeahhh... i was going mod happy when i first bought the car lol.... Now I'm too lazy to take them off, when I had the SC there was a bit of the difference, now i might get an extra 1mpg But just you wait, when my turbo comes in I'm gonna do a dyno pull just for these bad boys to see haha.

 

I honestly had to read the first few posts about 3 times before understanding what the heck was going on. hehe. Groundhog day?

 

might be lol