Quote:
Originally Posted by Bc2005
Several of the later model manuals I owned were NA Honda’s, and they needed RPM to get into a good part of the power band and feel like they could accelerate. Keeping them up at 4-5k rpm or more was common for spirited driving. Similar cars with an automatic felt slow because they didn’t have paddle shifters or any other means to keep the engine in the power band.
Modern BMWs with turbos and a fast 8 speed automatic use the turbo to keep the torque curve nearly flat, and to develop max torque at a very low rpm. The ECM then shifts the automatic quickly and at the right time to keep the engine always in a strong part of the torque curve. The result is an automatic transmission car that provides very smooth power delivery with minimal turbo lag.
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100% agree. Turbo engines are much better matched with automatic transmissions.
Since I brought up my turbo manual Bronco, I test drove the 2.3L EcoBoost with Ford's 10-speed automatic (which is considered by the industry to be a very good automatic), but it still sucked in my personal evaluation because it was tuned to shift for EPA compliance to fuel consumption and emissions regs. The 10-speed has a "sport" mode, which is a +/- thumb-button on the side of the shift lever, but it is designed to hold gear in off road driving, not performance shifting on the street. Every non-performance street car with an auto is tuned for adherence to government environmental regulations rather than the driving situation the driver is in. That's why I prefer manual transmissions. For the Bronco, the manual lets me use the gears as I want to both on the street and off road, the 10-speed auto in manual mode sucks. Maybe if it had paddle shifters it'd be better, but it's not offered in that configuration for the Bronco. In the case of the Bronco, the manual broadens the drivability of the vehicle because of the way the automatic is tuned and interfaced with the driver. Had the Bronco not been offered with a manual, I'd would not have bought one. I basically ordered my Bronco sight unseen (a first for me) with the hopes the 2.3L EcoBoost/manual was going to be good setup. I test drove the automatic when the Bronco dealer mannequins came available for test drives to customers who had pre-ordered their Broncos (about 1-year before my Bronco was delivered), I almost cancelled my order after the test drive.
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A manual transmission can be set to "comfort", "sport", and "track" modes simply by the technique and speed at which you shift it; it doesn't need "modes", modes are for manumatics that try to behave like a real 3-pedal manual transmission. If you can money-shift it, it's a manual transmission. "Yeah, but NO ONE puts an automatic trans shift knob on a manual transmission."