Does anyone actually want an automatic?

[Kbl911]

For "someone for whom the acceleration" is actually an important buying point should be shopping for cars to go on the track and will largely be gutting it anyway for race modification. That means they can buy whatever cheap car they, or their sponsorship, can afford and then refit it to be electric for the supposed "acceleration benefit". The "bulbous electric sedans" will still out-perform the petrol "sub-compact, 2-door, sports car".

Untrue. Effortless acceleration is of major benefit both on and off of a track. Does that really require justification? I feel like we are all aware of that. The vast majority of drivers will *never* drive any vehicle in a track setting, whether it be their own vehicle or someone else's. The same way most SUV owners will never take their vehicles off road, at least not deliberately. That's just how it is. So, the idea that anyone interested in acceleration, full-stop, is or should be looking for a track car is fundamentally silly.

Again, people shopping for a Z are already looking at sports cars, they're clearly looking for a certain size, aesthtic, and set of general vehicular attributes. So the idea that "random electric sedan" is quicker-accelerating is irrelevant to that shopping process. Someone looking for beach attire is unlikely to be swayed to buy a wool overcoat regardless of its various qualities.

Overall, I'm simply saying you're making an illogical and unnecessary point.

 

[relyt]

The only way I would consider getting one without a clutch is if it was a true dual clutch automatic. I don't care that this one is faster than the manual even with a torque converter. Faster isn't what I care about.

 

[Go2ZZZ]

The only way I would consider getting one without a clutch is if it was a true dual clutch automatic. I don't care that this one is faster than the manual even with a torque converter. Faster isn't what I care about.

Get a brz if you don’t care for speed and want a manual. Save your $

 

[Denton]

Any real car enthusiast will buy the manual, remove the manual, and replace it with an 18 speed from a semi.

For the extra purity... ?

Ya know. Since the only thing that matters about the drive is the is shifting?

 

[Denver the Last Dinosaur]

noting F1 and Indy cars are already automatic transmission

Nope. F1 cars are semi-automatic. They've simply switched to flappy paddles and no clutch pushing (partly to save cockpit space and weight), but the driver is still in full control of which gear is used when. No race driver uses an automatic in automatic mode ... it's simply ludicrous to do so.

 

[Denver the Last Dinosaur]

Again, people shopping for a Z are already looking at sports cars, they're clearly looking for a certain size, aesthtic, and set of general vehicular attributes.

Again, 0-60 timers are completely irrelevant on the road. If that's a hugely important reason for you buying any road car, then you're simply either a hoon or an idiot, or both. Either way you're likely to lose your license pretty quickly, but hopefully won't kill anyone else in the process.

 

[Donalex]

For some people who buy a Z because of the speed and handling, it's like someone buying an AR15 just in case they encounter an armed intruder.

Most will shit their pants upon encountering forces beyond their limits.

 

[Kbl911]

Again, 0-60 timers are completely irrelevant on the road. If that's a hugely important reason for you buying any road car, then you're simply either a hoon or an idiot, or both. Either way you're likely to lose your license pretty quickly, but hopefully won't kill anyone else in the process.

I'm just going to ignore the lunacy of this statement.

 

[Denver the Last Dinosaur]

Most will shit their pants upon encountering forces beyond their limits.

Yep. Most of these idiots whining on about 0-60 times will never even attempt to experience those times on a track, let alone the road ... which simply makes even less relevant.

There's a similar thing with people who buy laptop computers simply because it's the "cool" thing to do ... yet the laptop never ever leaves their desk and wall socket. For the same price they could easily have bought a desktop computer that was more powerful and with a bigger display, but that isn't as "cool" to their friends.

 

[Denver the Last Dinosaur]

And here (as posted by V35 in another topic) is what happens to the few such morons who do stupidly attempt it.

​

The morons get what they deserve ... the problem is they often kill someone else.

 

[jdm-rhd]

Any real car enthusiast will buy the manual, remove the manual, and replace it with an 18 speed from a semi.

For the extra purity... ?

Ya know. Since the only thing that matters about the drive is the is shifting?

 

[morgand]

Nope. F1 cars are semi-automatic. They've simply switched to flappy paddles and no clutch pushing (partly to save cockpit space and weight), but the driver is still in full control of which gear is used when. No race driver uses an automatic in automatic mode ... it's simply ludicrous to do so.

We can argue about semantics, I sense you're that guy, but no clutch and paddles to change gears would hardly be called a manual stick shift, and can clearly be duplicated in manual mode of the automatic transmission in the Z.

 

[Denver the Last Dinosaur]

^ Yes, "manual mode" ... hence the driver is changing the gears. In an automatic, the car is changing gears when it thinks it should.

 

[MHockey17]

^ Yes, "manual mode" ... hence the driver is changing the gears. In an automatic, the car is changing gears when it thinks it should.

I don’t get the impression anyone is trying to claim that the computer’s shift LOGIC is (always) superior to a human driver, rather that an AT’s shift SPEED is superior to a human with a MT.

Almost all AT sports cars are featured with a “manual mode” nowadays, even if the stock shift logic is cumbersome (can likely be fixed with a tune tho), a driver shifting manually in an AT will always be faster vs same driver shifting in an H-pattern MT of the same car, hence why those seeking peak performance beyond just driver engagement, the AT is the way to go.

 

[Denver the Last Dinosaur]

^ Nobody was denying the shifting speed (at least for more modern automatics).

The original statement was that an automatic is faster than a human at changing gears. That statement implies "automatic" means the car is changing the gears.

But, my point has always been that ...

1. Anyone planting their foot to do 4sec 0-60 times on public roads should have their driving licence revoked.
   
   
2. Race drivers do not use automatics (in the sense of the car changing gears as per the original statement). In some cases they do use automatics in "manual mode" or semi-automatics, where the driver is changing the gears, precisely because it gives them better control.

So in both cases, the fact that an automatic (changing itself) can change faster than a human (whether manual or "manual mode") is irrelevant. The exception would be in sprint run and drag races on a track where the entire point is to "just" plant your foot and go.

Besides which, the difference between the manual (with a skilled driver), the automatic in manual mode (with a skilled driver), and the fully automatic is measured in tenths of a second.

Claiming you want an automatic road car because it can change faster than a human is either a case of option 1 above or someone simply wanting to brag in pointless a "mine's bigger than yours" style who won't ever be doing those 0-60 times anyway (and usually whinging because the Supra is faster, where 0-60 times are just as equally pointless).