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by Kwan Tse on January 11th, 2006

Kwan Tse

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Can someone race using a car that has automatic transmission?

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  • by Shabba on January 18th, 2006

    Shabba

    A tiptronic auto would be better than a regular auto - but it then means you're controlling the gearshifts.

    There are several other things that detract from autos.

    1. Power losses. Because the torque converter on them is a fluid coupling, rather than a mechanical link like a clutch, it will sap some power out of the engine - less power will get to the gearbox than the engine is actually producing. Some autos have locking torque converters - if you had a way to force it to lock whenever you wanted, then that would overcome part of that problem.

    2. Gears. Usually automatic transmissions have less gears than a manual. While the standard for manuals for many years has been five gears, relatively few autos had more than three or four. Only recently have a few cars come out with five or six speed autos.

    3. Shift lag. Most autos take a second or two to shift gears - much longer than a quick shift of a manual. This would cost time, acceleration and overall speed.

    4. Power control. With a manual and a clutch, you can control the power going to the wheels. If you need to, you can let the clutch slip a little, or even dump the clutch (while moving or stationary) to break the driving wheels loose. Automatics tend to absorb a lot of this stuff - they take all the control away.

    5. Cost. By the time you pay for all the parts and labour it would take to build an auto transmission up to racing spec, you'd be just as well off buying a decent racing manual gearbox.

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