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But anyone that drives a manual will let you know it's mostly about the clutch and how you use it, rather than choosing what gear you're in. Using a clutch just

But anyone that drives a manual will let you know it's mostly about the clutch and how you use it, rather than choosing what gear you're in. Using a clutch just right can produce amazing amount of torque just when you need it. Automatic clutch can be incredibly efficient, but it simply can't know what you want to do.

mrcartmeneses 4y ago
Yeah. And the car is just second guessing you in general. I can blip the throttle in my automatic and the car acts like nothing happened at all. Or I’ll put my foot to the floor, nothing happens, then a few seconds later it downshifts and jerks forward. But it’s easy on long journeys and the road is not a racetrack so I can’t complain.
- yostrovs 4y ago
  Yes, you'd think the car would get the most aggressive when the pedal is to the metal. Instead, I noticed that a strong, but gradual increase on the gas will provide more power.
- foobarian 4y ago
  I drove an AT rental with a "manual" mode. The AT kept wanting to sit in high gears, which require a lot of torque at low RPMs, which ended up hitting this funny resonant spot in the car and cause an annoying rumble. I ended up running it in manual mode and lower gears.
  - sbaiddn 4y ago
    Rental fleets are so bad now, the first thing I do is figure out how to manually operate the tranny. Then Ill downshift 15 seconds before needing the power. I recently had a car with "10" speeds (it was actually a CVT) and to get any passing power on the highway I had to drop it into 3rd. Shift shift shift shift shift shift shift and then pathetic engine would scream like nothing Ive heard before.
Maursault 4y ago
> Using a clutch just right can produce amazing amount of torque just when you need it. Nailed it. Not to dismiss those romanticizing clutching and shifting, but that is incidental. The entire point of a manual transmission is performance. It's control over torque that delivers it. I love that I can pump RPMs into the red before clutching into gear, the vigor of that power, G forces pulling the body against the seat, chirping wheels in 4th gear at 70mph, going up a steep hill with a quickness. (Crud, did I just romanticize torque?) I find it hard to believe the ICE manual will ever die completely so long as there is a rally to race. No matter how quick an automatic electric is, it's not going to beat decent drivers of ICE manuals. But hopefully someday they'll all be rice burners, for the enviro.
- zaarn 4y ago
  I will point out that modern electrics don't do automatic anymore. The "automatic" transmission is all software. There is a fixed gear ratio. EV motors have almost perfectly flat torque curves across the entire RPM spectrum. That feeling when you pump the RPMs and let the clutch go? An EV could give you that from 0 to 180kph without ever having to switch gears. An EV doesn't need to be quicker than a manual. There is nothing to be quicker with. There is no gear shift.
  - dieselgate 4y ago
    What about deceleration with a fixed gear ratio? I’d assume there’d need to be braking applied without being able to downshift
    - zaarn 4y ago
      The electric motor just turns into a generator and charges the battery. Engine breaking with an EV is literally refilling your tank, so to speak. The modern EVs are pretty smart about it and will also apply the breaks sneakily if the engine can't bring up enough resistance (due to battery being charged, too much change in a short time, etc.) I will also add that the break pads in EVs are criminally underused to the point that they reach their maximum service life with barely any usage on them. If you want a comparison, it's basically like flicking on the little dynamo engines on a bicycle and then turning on the light. It'll slow you down a lot quicker than without the light on. Same principle here and works just as well.
User23 4y ago
Another nice thing is using the clutch to roll start a vehicle with a dead battery.
- greedo 4y ago
  My first car was a Beetle with the autostick. It was great. I started it more times than I could count by pushing/rolling it.

mrcartmeneses 4y ago

Yeah. And the car is just second guessing you in general. I can blip the throttle in my automatic and the car acts like nothing happened at all. Or I’ll put my foot to the floor, nothing happens, then a few seconds later it downshifts and jerks forward. But it’s easy on long journeys and the road is not a racetrack so I can’t complain.

yostrovs 4y ago
Yes, you'd think the car would get the most aggressive when the pedal is to the metal. Instead, I noticed that a strong, but gradual increase on the gas will provide more power.
foobarian 4y ago
I drove an AT rental with a "manual" mode. The AT kept wanting to sit in high gears, which require a lot of torque at low RPMs, which ended up hitting this funny resonant spot in the car and cause an annoying rumble. I ended up running it in manual mode and lower gears.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  Rental fleets are so bad now, the first thing I do is figure out how to manually operate the tranny. Then Ill downshift 15 seconds before needing the power. I recently had a car with "10" speeds (it was actually a CVT) and to get any passing power on the highway I had to drop it into 3rd. Shift shift shift shift shift shift shift and then pathetic engine would scream like nothing Ive heard before.

Maursault 4y ago

> Using a clutch just right can produce amazing amount of torque just when you need it. Nailed it. Not to dismiss those romanticizing clutching and shifting, but that is incidental. The entire point of a manual transmission is performance. It's control over torque that delivers it. I love that I can pump RPMs into the red before clutching into gear, the vigor of that power, G forces pulling the body against the seat, chirping wheels in 4th gear at 70mph, going up a steep hill with a quickness. (Crud, did I just romanticize torque?) I find it hard to believe the ICE manual will ever die completely so long as there is a rally to race. No matter how quick an automatic electric is, it's not going to beat decent drivers of ICE manuals. But hopefully someday they'll all be rice burners, for the enviro.

zaarn 4y ago
I will point out that modern electrics don't do automatic anymore. The "automatic" transmission is all software. There is a fixed gear ratio. EV motors have almost perfectly flat torque curves across the entire RPM spectrum. That feeling when you pump the RPMs and let the clutch go? An EV could give you that from 0 to 180kph without ever having to switch gears. An EV doesn't need to be quicker than a manual. There is nothing to be quicker with. There is no gear shift.
- dieselgate 4y ago
  What about deceleration with a fixed gear ratio? I’d assume there’d need to be braking applied without being able to downshift
  - zaarn 4y ago
    The electric motor just turns into a generator and charges the battery. Engine breaking with an EV is literally refilling your tank, so to speak. The modern EVs are pretty smart about it and will also apply the breaks sneakily if the engine can't bring up enough resistance (due to battery being charged, too much change in a short time, etc.) I will also add that the break pads in EVs are criminally underused to the point that they reach their maximum service life with barely any usage on them. If you want a comparison, it's basically like flicking on the little dynamo engines on a bicycle and then turning on the light. It'll slow you down a lot quicker than without the light on. Same principle here and works just as well.

User23 4y ago

Another nice thing is using the clutch to roll start a vehicle with a dead battery.

greedo 4y ago
My first car was a Beetle with the autostick. It was great. I started it more times than I could count by pushing/rolling it.