interesting 'car guy' shit...
 

"Lamborghini research and development director, Maurizio Reggiani, has confirmed to MotorTrend magazine that Lamborghini will no longer offer a manual transmission option. The Aventador will be the first lamborghini offered without such an option and all indications are that the rest of the industry is following the same course.In the interview, Reggiani explains that just one to two percent of the 1,200 cars that left the factory last year opted for a manual transmission. When the Gallardo replacement, due next year, is introduced it will not include a manual option either. The explanation offered is that for the whole car to work seamlessly, an automated transmission must be offered to make the most of other automated components. It seems Lamborghini want to give customers a faultless experience and remove the potential for driver error.

A decision will also be made on the possibility of a Sesto Elemento limited edition run in the next few months. The technology used in the model is nearing production feasibility. A number of improvements have also ensured that quality levels are at an all-time high at the factory.

The manual gearbox news won?t come as a surprise to most who follow the supercar industry, we reported before on this subject. Next to that Ferrari have produced their last manual gearbox in the California, with models following this all being automated only."

Not sure what kind of use that sort of car gets to warrent a manual box. Probably don't actually do much else other than bomb down the motorway or sit in traffic jams.

the new 911 will have a 7 speed manual.

Yeah, kid of a shame but the modern computer-controlled automatics work much better with computer-controlled engines than a manual would.

Although I am using a more modern engine in my '38 Packard Six, I have had special adapter plates made so that I can retain the original Packard three-speed floor shift tranny to keep the flavor of the Good Old Days. Sort of a hot rod but pretty much box-stock external appearance with upgraded '55 Packard brakes, air conditioning, power steering and a very tall rear end from a '55 Packard (3.23 vs the original 4.6) for good highway cruising speeds and Holley fuel injection for fuel economy.

It will end up looking like this one but with a black roof, yellow below the belt line and black fenders:

http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/v...600-1938-1.jpg

Got the paint scheme here:

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...rCareySide.jpg

Always have liked that one!

yeah I agree.. you should hear all the BS about me getting the auto in my cts v...

flappy paddle gearboxes take a lot of the fun out of the driving experience for me. although i am impressed that they can shift in 300 milliseconds or whatever it is now, prolly less for the aventador, i find that that doesn't mean much in the real world.

my real world is going 10-20 mph in heavy traffic 40% of the time

I agree with you 110%. My old BMW M5 had a sequential 7 speed transmission SMG. Absolutely hated it and wished I has the manual transmission.

i live in los angeles, a simple automatic would suffice in that situation for me. besides, i'm used to jetting around la la on motorcycles, we don't have the slick trans option yet, gotta row them gears!

was that the m5 with the v10? was that offered in a manual? kick ass option if so eh. :thumbsup

the car I drive right now puts out 556 hp and 550 lb-ft so I have plenty of power on tap pretty much all the time... the only time I would need a stick is to 'race through the mountains' and the amount of time I do that comparred to sitting in traffic is 99/1, so a stick is pretty pointless... this car churps the tires going into 4th with the auto on D... seriously what the fuck more do you need? what's a stick going to do?

The truth is a manual can shift faster than a human can.

After thirty years of driving a stick I finally moved up to a automatic. I'm loving it too.

You must live in SoCal. Sucks to be you.

rode a bike for almost 30 years.. pretty familar with the deal... and I gotta tell ya getting the vette really opened my eyes. a vette is faster and a whole lot more fun than a bike... for me...

dosn't even slightly suck to be me :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

seriously with a fast car like what I drive what the fuck is a stick really going to do for me? get me to the next light or rear bumper of the next car 100th's of a second faster???? :1orglaugh

dump that ford and get a fast car OR get this:
http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/20...ls-Edition.htm

cool!! i've owned and driven many sports cars, i don't have a problem with corvettes, other than waiting to see what the final c7 is going to be. i doubt i'd ever own any corvette other than a classic though.

fast cars will always beat fast motorcycles around turns and such, simple physics.

eh? a manual shift is a human shift. moreover, you are incorrect. the new paddle shifters are exponentially faster than human, that's the point of them. check out their evolution from f1 to road cars.

not even that really so much as I never really got comfortable with the helmet law and I like to drink coffe and listen to crappy music when I'm driving around... plus sitting at a light on a bike between 2 cars when it's 100+ degrees REALLY sucks :thumbsup

I have this v until Oct 10th 2013... I'll see what the vettes are doing then... was looking online for info on the c7 this morn matter of fact

I prefer modern cars for all the automatic living type of crap in them... classics look geat but the conveince just isn't there

i'm with you. while i do love riding scooties and all the advantages of slipping through traffic, i do prefer the modern conveniences and such a nice 4 wheel vehicle provides.

i rly don't understand what chevy is doing with the c7 right now..........i'd wager the entire car, except the rear end, will be very much like the transformers 3 vette, but hell, chevy hasn't even said what the base engine is. i do think it will be the most bad ass vette ever though. it better be, the new 911 is shaping up to be a stellar sports car.

the vettes have always been cutting edge in the price range... guys always want to compare vette performance against Lambo, Ferrari, Porche etc... the reality is my vette was 38k and I put 130K great funfilled miles on the car with regular repairs, tires and once the timing/cam chips... and I went places no one would ever drive an exotic... fireroads, dirts roads in rain and snow, no roads... fuck most of the dickwads here wouldn't even take their suv's where I took the vette... but they will bag me out for driving one AND I was able to take enough gear with me to produce content on the road all at 26 MPG, and beat the crap out of 99% of any cars in the area :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Yep V10 with 507hp stock. I had an after market eisenmann exhaust on mine as well which added some extra HP.

Fun car to drive on windy roads but not so much fun in town.

Had it for 3 years and sold it just as the warranty came up.

I just prefer stick shift rather than tip tronic shifting... Has nothing to do with power... Personal preference I guess :-)

yup, that says it all :) although the v is fun to drive in town... kind or MPG you get on the m5?

yeah. some guys are like that.. I leave the damn thing in D 99% of the time anyway.. mostly just a cruzer myself... sometimes to power out of a corner in the hills a stick would be cool but not worth the trade off and the 1000 extra pounds on the V is a bit weird to get used to anyway

we all know the sports car world, manufacturers and more than a few enthusiasts all look to the 911 as the standard sports car to beat. while i don't necc. agree, i'd also say chevy is eyeing the 911 as the car the corvette needs to beat. corvette is a contender to be a 911 beater and i think especially, the new corvette will be.

automatic is for pussies and old pepps :D jk its car to car what i want...

You can not throw the power back to the wheels with any auto trans, in order to feel the curve and exit properly, the car needs to have a bite on the pavement. Living in the city is a waste on a car that is capable of creating true Gforce, I love the feel of a rear wheel drive monster gearing down to hold the turn only to explode on the instance of turn complete.....nothing like it!

Both auto and manual has their place, for conveniance sakes I like the auto, but if I had a Dodge Viper , I would much prefer a manual:thumbsup

yeah read that too, kinda good & bad, you see more & more cars with paddle shifters or hybrid automatic with shiters...still good to have a old skool stick-shift!

This is an emerging trend unfortunately with many car manufacturers. The truth of the matter is most people cannot properly drive a standard anymore with the increases in horsepower with modern vehicles. Mr Joe Average just cannot control them safely and most people just want that "smooth" ride.

When's the last time anyone actually remembers a truck being sold with a manual transmission? I can't even remember. It makes me sad :(

completley different cars.... a vette is a mucle car that goes around a corner 'okay' while a porche is a porche... don't care for the look of the porche myself... and sure don't want a tiny wind up motor... geez... who wants to rev 6K just to pull up in the driveway :(

Comparison: 2011 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 vs. 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo

what if we were to tell you that on the dragstrip a 2011 Porsche 911 Turbo that gives up two cylinders, more than 2 liters of displacement, and well over 100 horsepower to the Chevy absolutely gobsmacked the stuffing from a USDA Prime Corvette ZR1? On the flip side of that same coin, would you be willing to believe a General Motors product -- one that quite literally began melting after a few hours in the hot California sun -- not only beat but flat-out embarrassed a Nurburgring'd all-star twin-turbo AWD Porsche on a tricky, challenging, high-speed racetrack? What's next, a black president?

Corvette vs. Porsche 911 the 40+ Year Old War!

http://rawautos.com/2008/02/corvette...-year-old-war/

This guy I used to drink beer with on occasion took a Jeep Cherokee and turned it from an automatic to a manual and we would pile in and go muddin on the trails...

I would always volunteer to sit in the back with the girls and the beer... :winkwink:

But yeah, manuals more fun if its just a weekend car/street race car but for everyday automatics the way to go... its sad supercars are all going auto... who buys those and drives them everyday? I think they would get boring doing that all the time... :2 cents: ... wait take that back.

don't matter to me... love muscle cars. don't give a fuck if a porche flies, the blows me... just not intersted in a porche

the original point.

the main constraint with corvette is the price break. vettes are the 'common man's race car', not the 'rich Dr's pussy wagon', and the price must reflect this.

and since there is a price barrier this eliminates mid engine, trick suspension etc etc ect .. at least this is what I've read over and over regarding GM's precived placement of the vette.

I mean I paid 38k for a car that is always compared to a 70k car...

I am sure paying attention to the c7 and really looking forward to the anouncements... porches look weird to me and always have... to be honest about it, guys that drive vettes really like vettes. just like porche guys like porches. I know the porche is a 'better' car etc... just have no desire to even drive one. spoke with a guy that has a porche blah blah blah whatever, and something else semi exotic... he drives his vette.

I don't think porche with a 3.1 in-line 6 cylinder will drive around all day at 1.5k on the tack, I don't care how many turbo's you put on it... it's not the same low-end pull as a 6.2 v8, it's not muscle... this is why I have the V. makes me really uncomfortaable to read about a smaller v8/v6 with more hp for the c7... even read GM has a 2.4, 4 cylinder that puts out 1000 hp. if gm fucks up the vette, I'll keep the V and get a used c6 z06 with a 7 liter banger in it :thumbsup

I'm on the fence. If you're casually racing it once and awhile and otherwise just driving around town, you're better off with an automatic, especially the new paddle-shifters that can shift more accurately and MUCH faster than 99.9999% of the population.

If you're taking your 911 or Lambo or whatever and turning it into a dedicated track car, be it drag or any sort of racing that involves turning - you're better off with a manual transmission to a certain point. Of course if you're building a dedicated drag car, once you get past the 9 and a half second mark in the 1/4 mile (or less if you're not a seasoned professional driver) you're putting a powerglide, c6, th400, lenco, jerico, etc in your car.

I would estimate that 98% of the cars Lamborghini or Porsche or Ferrari or Audi or Chevy (regarding the Corvettes specifically) sell go to consumers and not race teams. No point in having two sets of tools, two sets of training, two entire sets of parts and perhaps even two different production facilities in order to produce a car only 2% of your buyers want.



For the record, I absolutely DESPISED automatics until my first and last Camaros. The first was a stock car, stock auto on a LOT of nitrous, and I would have blown that car all to hell at 17 with 200hp worth of juice and a whopping 18 months of driving history had I not been able to keep two hands on the wheel. The last one was a 3800rpm stalled huge cam car, and I could pace just about every AWD car I raced off the line with a little throttle feathering and then blast by them when I was able to really catch traction. Would have just sat there blowing the tires off with a 6spd.

In my eyes, there are more pro's than con's to an automatic for a street car.

Luckily my office was a 2 minute drive from my house so i only had to fill up maybe twice a month. I think i put on if i was lucky 10,000km a year...

But i would say I got around 400km or so on a tank of gas. I took it to the track once and could literally see my gas gauge go down as i floored it LOL!

Def not a car for someone who has to commute long distances to work everyday ;-)