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Manual vs auto, which accelerates faster?

It was pretty much manual over auto for any given car until around the late 80s-early 90s. Modern autos are quite good, but you have 10sp autos now vs 6sp manuals, plus faster auto shifts through 10 (TEN!!!) gears. So “more gears, same motor” will likely be quicker. 4 over 3, but 10 over 6. Think of it like a bicycle, 10 speed vs 1 gear. Or any other combo, more time in the power/leverage zone.

But I’ll take a stick over an auto 24/7.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=10+s...sion&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ca&client=safari
 
Manual.png


Funny as it seems, the Tremec swap I just finished makes this meme absolutely true.
I didn't build this car to be fast in the quarter mile. I did it because I enjoy a car that does many things well. I want it to be fun to drive, to corner well, brake well, be reasonably comfortable and reliable.
A straight line drag car is probably a lot of fun and if that is your thing....good for you.
Before I did the Tremec swap, I considered taking the car to a chassis dyno to get a baseline net HP number with the 727, then a repeat session with the 5 speed. One place was $200 per session, another one had a shop so cluttered and messy, I couldn't trust the staff to treat the car as I would want.
I only considered the dyno testing to satisfy my own curiosity. I looked online for accurate info on net HP between manual and auto transmission cars. The numbers were a bit varied. Some transmissions are more efficient than others. 727s and Ford C6s take more power to turn than a 904 or Ford C4. The numbers I recall were that automatics generally result in a 18-22% loss while manual transmissions had numbers under 20%.
It would be great to do a stock VS stock comparison on something like a 440 GTX auto versus 4 speed to keep the numbers fair.
 
So lets say

1970 Dodge Coronet R/T 426 3 speed auto
vs
1970 Dodge Coronet R/T 426 4 speed manual

I imagine the 4 speed manual equipped car probably has a higher top speed because of the extra gear.

As far as i know you loose about 10% more power with the automatic but it also shifts faster...

So which is faster 0-60?
Typically an OEM 4 speed is still 1:1 in 4th just like a 727, the difference is your gears are split between 4 gears instead of 3. This isn't an apples to apples comparison, to many variables. A week motor or a car with numerically low gearing (freeway gears) will benefit from the added gear splitting with the 4 speed, a really healthy motor or one with numerically high gearing will benefit from having to shift one less time. After that it comes down to whether the operator can drive a standard (leave the line and bang the gears). I've always felt the automatics had the advantage of coarse that's only with a proper setup.
 
Many, many years ago when a lot of my quarter mile buds began switching over to autos seem to all say the same thing, they preferred their manuals but the autos provided more consistent ET times. Seems which was faster was not the question as to why change.
 
I was told in my early racing days that, "No one can shift faster than a well programed automatic."
Fact or Fiction. This post just conjured up a old memory.
 
I would say the 4 speed would be a slight bit quicker for about 1-2% of racers, auto for everybody else.

In theory the manual can get more power down, but you have to be able to shift it as quickly as an auto, and there is an extra shift.
 
When you're cruising along and that situation happens where you want all of the acceleration "right now", the auto wins. I drive a stick every day and grabbing just the right gear when you weren't thinking about it at all a moment before is a slower process than simply stuffing an auto to the floor and letting it do its thing.
 
I didn't build this car to be fast in the quarter mile. I did it because I enjoy a car that does many things well. I want it to be fun to drive, to corner well, brake well, be reasonably comfortable and reliable.

Exactly!! I kept mine auto. Seriously considered manual, but I really enjoy having my lady sit right next to me on the bench seat w my arm around her shoulder. My truck w 275k+ miles on it is a manual. I get enough rowing the boat from that.
 
Looks like some think the auto accelerates a bit faster while others think the manual accelerates a bit faster.
But overall i get the impression (without seeing any vintage documents or videos) they are very close.

Which is good to know because i thought the 4 speed manual would have a real advantage over the 3 speed auto which seems to be not true.

It would be great to do a stock VS stock comparison on something like a 440 GTX auto versus 4 speed to keep the numbers fair.

Yes that would be interesting.
No vintage comparisons ever made?
 
There ia a reason the Ramchargers used autos.

Ronnie Sox won nearly everything with a stick until around 1973. I am sure if an auto was faster he would have used that. Clearly not every driver can beat an auto with a stick, but the stick was capable of beating the auto everyday until the Lenco.

I would not want to see the factory sponsorship parts bill on the stick though- my bills for stick are an awful lot worse vs auto racing.
https://www.challengerforum.com/articles/ronnie-sox-a-tribute-to-mr-four-speed.14/
 
First, this is only my opinion..... from a 15mph roll, i would bet on the stick shift. The avantage of an auto is in the launch from a stop. If an expert driver familiar with the characteristics of the stick car can probably get it to leave as well as an auto, but thats a big " if".
Im not an nhra member, but they used to have stock eliminator records in their paper. Compare stock eliminator stick records to the auto. Thats how to compare best stick against best auto.
 
Exactly!! I kept mine auto. Seriously considered manual, but I really enjoy having my lady sit right next to me on the bench seat w my arm around her shoulder. My truck w 275k+ miles on it is a manual. I get enough rowing the boat from that.
when my lady is sitting next to me my hand is between her legs , that's worth the manual itself, I never even drove an auto until I was 22 when my dad asked me to drive his imperial, never had to think about when or what rpm I needed to shift at and I love barking the tires downshifting , you don't wear the brakes as much and most of the people I raced with auto's always wanted a rolling start
 
Looks like some think the auto accelerates a bit faster while others think the manual accelerates a bit faster.
But overall i get the impression (without seeing any vintage documents or videos) they are very close.

Which is good to know because i thought the 4 speed manual would have a real advantage over the 3 speed auto which seems to be not true.



Yes that would be interesting.
No vintage comparisons ever made?
None that i can remember reading that were apples to apples. The autos always seemed to be saddled with extras the stick cars didnt have (a/c, p/s etc.)and the autos always had less rear gear. (And often a milder camshaft)
 
Motown Missile vs. S+M always thought MM was sandbagging. Didn't want direct factory engineered car winning. They had that clutchflite working. Ronnie Sox was a great driver.
 
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Ronnie Sox was Superman,The best of the best. Hard to use him as a comparison.
Now if I was driving the 4 speed,,let's just say I was told you can drink 2 cups of coffee between my gear changes.:D
And I was power shifting !!!
 
Have a look at these figures from a Motor Trend test in 1969 of 3 Road Runners.
Note the auto has 3.23 gears against 4.10 for the 4 speed, and weighs 350 lbs more. Unfortunately the article doesn't list the specs for the cars so the weight of the 383 auto may be a misprint, or the 4 spd car was very basic and the auto had every option known to man including a/c.
20210323_060806.jpg
20210323_060823.jpg
 
Back in the early 60's with the onset of the 426 motor, a couple of drag racing legends such as Dick Landy, ran the pushbutton auto. He liked them so much he had his '65 race cars retrofitted with the '64 pushbutton auto after Chrysler ended production of the button shift that year. He found this setup lucrative for him.
 
Ronnie Sox was Superman,The best of the best. Hard to use him as a comparison.
Now if I was driving the 4 speed,,let's just say I was told you can drink 2 cups of coffee between my gear changes.:D
And I was power shifting !!!
I assume you were running a rev limiter? :D
 
Mike passed away last year but he had been racing for decades. Always ran a clutch car. Here, a Liberty 5 speed

 
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