Originally Posted by Suvlaki

??? '06 A/T 287hp, '06 M/T 300hp because of the rev-up engine... same torque though so really makes no difference.

A/T Manumatic mode works exactly the same as a manual transmission, except without a clutch. It will never change gears for you unless you TELL it to, or unless the engine is ready to stall (in which case, it will downshift.)

Originally Posted by spf4000

This tread has been done so many times, I'm sick of posting the same information every time but a Japanese car magazine did a test of whether a person was faster around a track in an auto Z or a manual Z. They used three people: one professional racer and two car magazine editors. Both of the car magazine editors were capable drivers (better than most of you).

They put them through a series of trials including an autocross course as well as a full circuit, and guess what? The only person who was faster in the manual was the professional driver. He was a whopping 0.1 sec faster in the 1/4, and around the circuit, he was approx. 0.3 quicker in the manual Z. The two editors were FASTER in the auto Z, and one of them was faster around the circuit by more than 0.5 seconds!

The reason? Unless you race cars for a living, shifting is a distraction. It takes away focus from driving the perfect line and utilizing the tires to their fullest. When you're driving a manual, you're forced to think about downshifting, heel-toe, etc. If you take away shifting, you can concentrate on braking, turning, and accelerating, which is the important thing to going fast around a track.