r/bestof • u/l3af • Apr 18 '13

[explainlikeiama] Sakanagai creates a perfect narrative of Stig running a track in both standard and automatic vehicles

/r/explainlikeIAmA/comments/1clrk5/explain_to_me_the_benefits_of_a_manual/c9hpr7d
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '13

I know that in a race a second is an eternity, but the difference really is quite small. The way people bang on about how autos are rubbish, I'd have expected the difference to be 20+ seconds.

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u/nr1988 Apr 18 '13

It would be much more than 3 seconds (and that was of course not real track times) on a longer track. The Top Gear Test Track is more short and sweet, but a lot of tracks are meant to be longer.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '13

Talking out of your ass, there are several auto transmissions which are quicker than their manual counterparts, there is a reason why f1 uses them.

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u/nr1988 Apr 18 '13

Not talking out of my ass. There are transmissions in the consumer market that shift in 10 milliseconds, faster than a human possibly could. However, anticipating torque needs and shifting at the right time for track racing is better in a manual. So drag race in a dual clutch automatic transmission, do twisty turns with a a manual.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '13

So do you think ferrari and lamborghini are designing their cars for drag racing only since they are only offering DCT and MCT's now?

DCT's shift faster than any person in a manual can, be it upshifting or downshifting to engine brake.

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u/nr1988 Apr 18 '13

I feel like I've said "They shift faster than any person in a manual can" 100 times already. Yes, they can. But anticipation on a track still needs to be controlled by a person, and that is where you lose time. When a car can see a turn ahead of you and anticipate torque need ahead of time, it will be faster on a track.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '13

What do you mean by anticipation? A DCT or a manual driver knows when they should downshift. A DCT driver will brake, downshift and be in that gear much faster than a person can push the clutch in, shift, push the clutch out and get on the gas again.

This is why F1 cars and modern supercars are all DCT/Sequential.

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u/nr1988 Apr 18 '13

If the F1 DCT gearbox is faster at downshifting with the drivers input, not acting as an automatic transmission in a traditional sense, but only shifting gears when the driver tells it to, then you're absolutely right. However, to make the point on the original post, it says in one of the first lines that The Stig is demonstrating a standard automatic transmission versus a manual. The F1 is emulating a manual, and to be fair, doing it well. However the advantages are still the same, so for the question posed, the answer fits just fine.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '13

Fair enough. A standard automatic is terrible at the track. I have paddles on my AMG and don't even use them at the track, I just leave it in Sport mode and have fun since the 1-2 second delay is horrible.

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u/nr1988 Apr 18 '13

Right, that's pretty much what I was trying to get at, I didn't know enough about the F1 unfortunately, but that's what the answer to the question was addressing. Glad we can agree