On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 03:50:36PM -0400, Ken Waller wrote: > > Kenneth Waller > http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Sessoms" > <[email protected]> > Subject: RE: Green mode, a detail I'd forgotten > > > >On Behalf Of Larry Colen > > > >>I'm willing to bet that people like that even buy Leicas. Level > >>of experience or knowledge > >>has nothing to do with how much someone spends on something. > >>Look at how long sports cars > >>have been available with automatic transmissions, even before > >>the modern ones that > >>arguably can out perform human shifting. > > > >I don't care if the automatic transmission can out perform me in > >shifting, it doesn't have as much fun, and is not as much fun to > >drive as my manual. > > > >Plus, I regularly get better MPG performance than I would with an > >auto. However you slice or dice it, an automatic transmission > >takes some of the engine's output for its own operation, and that > >translates into decreased MPG. > > I'm not sure that (mileage improvement) would hold true over the new > dual clutch gearboxes on the same engines.
It demonstrably does not. In fact modern dual-clutch automatics return better mileage than manual gearboxes, because a computer is *far* better at dynamically adjusting the shift points to return requested performance at optimal fuel efficiency than humans are. Even the best drivers on the planet - race car drivers who get paid millions of dollars a year for their talents - can not outperform automatic gearboxes. The only reason some series still retain their manual gearboxes is because the rules have been modified to require human input on the gearshift (although even there the actual shift is often still done by a powered mechanism, not by human muscle). Admittedly the best automated equipment also has costs that would keep it out of cars being built with any regard to price. But at lower "enthusiast" levels the line between power-driven sequential manual gearboxes (such as those in a Ferrari, or a BMW "M"-series, or whatever your favourite performance car might happen to be) and a multi-mode dual-clutch "automatic" is more one of terminology than of substance. As for "fun" - it's just as much fun to flick the paddles on my Z4 steering wheel as it was to stir the gearbox on my Mustang, and it's a whole lot nicer to be able to keep both hands on the wheel while downshifting in the middle of a sharp turn on CA route 9 ... And that's with the basic SMG - not a patch on the gearboxes that BMW fit on their M-series cars. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
