MANUAL OR AUTOMATIC WHICH
IS PREFERABLE
For the true enthusiast, the clutch pedal and gear stick or shifter are a JOY to use…NOT a burden. Traffic is the one exception but we are talking about the car enthusiast. We drive for PLEASURE, NOT to get to work or get groceries. So traffic is not an issue when it’s 7AM on a Saturday or Sunday and you are headed to your favorite country road.
For the enthusiast, the clutch pedal is a PLUS not a minus. It is a critical part of what makes driving a stick shift an art. Automatic is email and manual is a hand written
note. A dying art that is much more involved and personal than email.
Making a perfect shift, makes me smile like NO paddle shift will EVER do! Manual is a piano played with a live band, automatic is one man with a Casio keyboard in his basement with automatic accompaniment generated by the keyboard. The feeling of playing a complex piece correctly, dwarfs any reward of pressing ONE note and having the Casio keyboard play a bunch of chords automatically.
Is a paddle shift a manual transmission?
Being able to request gears manually does NOT make a transmission automatic. Remember in the automatics from the 80s you had “2” “L” “R”? So automatics have allowed you to “change gears” since the 80s. This is just like modern paddle shifters do.
NOTE: A sequential gearbox is NOT the same as the classic automatic gearbox, but the point is, you could ALWAYS select/request gears in automatics. So the ability to SELECT gears does not make it manual. You need the ability to physically disengage the clutch by moving the throw out bearing and also to physically change the actual gears. This is all mechanically done, not electronically. It requires focus, finesse, strength, timing and skill and it’s rewarding to do correctly
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Car Talk