PH Blog: manual labour
Autocar says the manual is dead and we shouldn't mourn its passing - Dan begs to differ
Paddles less involving? CSL begged to differ
You can read Steve's blog on the subject here. But he's bang on that there's no future for the manual gearbox given that manufacturers don't really want them, drivers don't really want them (well, the majority of drivers) and on road and track automated gearboxes are faster, more consistent and, increasingly, more efficient than their manual counterparts. That two quintessential drivers' cars - the Renaultsport Clio and 911 GT3 - won't have a manual option in their forthcoming new versions tells you all you need to know about how the manufacturers of those two hugely respected cars see the market is going. Indeed, BMW was there a decade ago when it offered the M3 CSL as an SMG-only deal. And that hasn't exactly harmed its reputation or desirability.
Dual-clutch only for new Renaultsport Clio
Nobody rides a horse any more because it's a useful, viable means of transport. And yet plenty of people put an awful lot of time, money and effort into keeping their nags for the sheer pleasure of it. If there was no romance in it we'd just end up putting them in burg- ... oh.
Some redundant technologies inspire this kind of passion, others don't. There are plenty of vinyl junkies out there and, again, there's satisfaction and a geeky pleasure in the inconvenience and imperfections of the format that outweighs the guaranteed quality and accessibility of CDs or downloads. But while I'm sure there are still fans out there you'd have to be pretty bloody minded to feel the same way about cassettes.
And it's the same for the new GT3 too
So he's mainly right. For mainstream manufacturers and racers, wannabe or actual, for whom every second counts the manual is effectively dead. But I'll miss them when they're gone, and I'm sure I'm not the only one on here. Let the diehards' bleating commence: "three pedals good, two pedals bad!" I'll be joining in!
Dan
For day to day driving, this place is just too crowded to be doing with a manual box. I don't really wanna sit with my foot on the clutch for hours on end while I slowly shuffle forward in traffic on the motorway because some nonce lost a wing mirror and the traffic wombles want to close 90% of the road for 2 hours. Give me an auto please.
But for a b-road blast. Manual every time. Its much more satisfying choosing the right gear and snicking it home with perfect clutch/accelerator work.
I watched a Colin McRae video from his Subaru days the other day. Noticed he had a proper manual box, not a sequential shift. His gearbox work looked magnificent. Surely something to aspire to.
New automated boxes are fantastic and fun but it dulls the experience a little, making it 'too easy' to drive fast and feel a little remote.
Regards,
My CC.
New automated boxes are fantastic and fun but it dulls the experience a little, making it 'too easy' to drive fast and feel a little remote.
Regards,
My CC.
Two main reasons for this - that it is easier for the manufacturer to control the gear that the car is in during the emissions test and secondly, that often the drag caused by the auto gubbins requires more throttle opening and hence cleaner running.
They may tell you that there's no sales in manuals, but I suspect that this is much more closer to the truth
New automated boxes are fantastic and fun but it dulls the experience a little, making it 'too easy' to drive fast and feel a little remote.
Regards,
My CC.
Automatics are fine for Range Rovers, Barges and the like but for driver focused cars the involvement is more important than 0.1 secs here and 0.005 secs there and as people have stated it is more to go wrong in the long term (although no doubt people will find cheaper ways to repair these things as time goes on).
Unfortunately due to legislation the focus has shifted towards efficiency and safety although i think the law of diminishing returns will be reached soon where the amount of safety devices is beyond what is realistically needed and the option to have a lots of power or high power to weight ratio is limted due to restrictions placed on manufacturers.
Emmissions is the real reason they look to replace manuals. The Aston Martin crappy effort is decades behind the likes of Audi and needs constant adjustment in the workshop if you try to drive it in traffic. They should be reserved for the race track, as that's where they were developed for, to shave valuable nano seconds off gear changes and to make the current batch of "racers" in to integrated, faultless pieces of the machines they guide round and round in circles.
All manuals should be polished or chromed metal gated boxes, so that arrousal occurs every time you get behind the wheel. Just my opinion.
Or, perhaps he could have got someone else to drive the race for him, thus eliminating not just the pesky gearchanges but all the other bothersome controls too?
Secondly, I'd be very sad to loose the choice of manual or automatic. Good manual gearboxes give one of the most direct mechanical connections to the driver and hugely increase engagement. Not to mention the fun a clutch pedal offers in trying to heel and toe and rev match perfectly. Even the PH smiley knows that manual is more fun
The definition of 'driving' is becoming increasingly diluted. It's just a continuous march towards what I call 'computer gameyness'- the 'driver' is pretty much lacking any mechanical connection to the oily/sparky bits and sits in an insulated bubble free from intrusive machine noise and road feel/sensation.
ETA: I'll drive an auto/automated manual gearbox when I'm old or disabled.
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