Hmm

[chilly460]

For me personally, manuals are just a bunch more fun, to a certain point where there's just enough power that it doesn't matter.  It was night and day when I put the manual in my Merc. 

My '01 Lightning made 400hp at the wheels, was pretty quick for what it was, but boring to drive.  I've ridden in and driven 750hp 460 stroker combo'd cars, to be honest I was glad it was an auto as they were a handful.   It'd be fun, but trying to row through the gears with a 750hp street car on street tires and stiff suspension in a modern all around road car would be useless. 

And stepping away from performance applications, it pains me that we can't get manuals in "normal" cars anymore.  Had a bunch of 70s FSeries with NP435s in them, little Rangers with sticks and the crappy 2.9L, Volkswagen for a time....it's much nicer driving "underpowered" vehicles with a stick as you can decide to hang on a few hundred extra rpm when needed. 

[plovett]

I am going to make sure my boys know how to drive a stick, even if I have to borrow my ex-wife's 2000 5 speed manual Saturn, or my girlfriend's 5 speed manual Chevy Sonic.  Sticks are SO feminine!  Of course it IS 2019 so ANYTHING goes, right Doug??? 

For 1/4 mile drag racing, I will teach my boys how to use my manual valve body C6.  As for masculinity, there are other measures.   

paulie

[Drew Pojedinec]

Funny you mention the work truck chilly.
I’ve always thought I was backwards in how I think about it.
I always preferred manuals in my heavy work trucks and autos in performance vehicles.

I’m weird tho....

[cjshaker]

I’m weird tho....

Shoot, that pretty much describes everyone here, Drew

It IS irritating that you can't even get a stick in a new truck these days. I'm not even sure if it's an option anymore, I haven't seen one in several years. It used to be that was the best choice for durability...still is IMO. New automatics are so complicated that the chance of something, just one little thing going wrong, that jacks up the whole system, is not a rare occurance. Then you can get into the whole 'traction sensitive all-wheel-drive' crap, which is great for todays inexperienced (texting) drivers, or sketchy road conditions, not so great for people who have to pay when something goes wrong. But these are pretty much all disposable cars these days. Just the world we live in now.

Drew, no argument about a C6 being cheaper than a complete manual set-up, but that relates to our older cars. Ever priced a new trans replacement, or even a rebuild? They are insanely expensive. But I have that beef with everything on newer cars; the price to pay for technology I guess. Compare the ratio between the price of a new car and an average house in the '60s, vs today. Using my Dads house as an example (realizing that housing prices differ in different areas), he built it for $21k in 1961. You could buy nearly 8 FULL SIZE cars back then for that price (1962 Galaxie 500 4dr sedan costing $2700). Today you could build his same house for $120k, but the average cost of a family size car is $35k. That's a ratio drop of well over half. Crazy to think about when put in perspective.

[fryedaddy]

If the point of owning a new fast car that is the quickest around, then getting from point A to B IS quicker with the automatic in today's vehicles.  I still have stick cars, but there is no way I can shift quicker than the newer 6-8-10 speed automatics.  I'm with Jay, I won a lot more races with an automatic in my Mach I than I ever did with 4 speed.  Joe-JDC

im like any other man,i like changing gears while driving a hotrod,it just seems more manly to say yea its got a toploader in it.but i switched my 4 speed out for a c6 because i missed a gear at the strip and it cost me my first 1st place win.its hard to beat a good automatic,but it is fun and manly to run a stick shift