6 Spd Man Or Auto?

[F6Rdodg'nroos]

I have had manuals in various sports cars all my driving life, until I got a taste of the ZF Auto.

First got it in a V8 Discovery3 - (yes same gearbox as Falcons and ) Awesome, quick and fun.

Then got it in a BF XR6, Then a BFMkIIXR6Turbo, now in the Typhoon and it is magic.

It is the best 6spd Auto box in the world - no question.

And it is as much, if not more fun than a manual. It changes quicker, you can "teach" it how you like to drive when you drive in sports shift, it remembers your gear shifting patterns for when you're back in Auto. It will hold gears thru corners, up hills, over crests and shift down on braking & downhills.

It handles power no problem- Torque rated over 650Nm in the typhoon.

The best thing about it is you can drive it accurately with more control and faster than a manual geabox, and if you just feel like cruising or driving in auto it is silky smooth and intuitive.

I will only buy a car now that has this gearbox in it - just my opinion.

Oh forgot to mention - economy, cruising on a flat hwy at 100km/h it uses just 7.5l/100km in my typhoon. It was a fraction better at 7.0l/100km in the T.

Edited 01/03/08 11:54 AM by F6Rdodg'nroos

[xr6t ego]

Don't bother with the manual. Take a T with the ZF in it and have a play with the 3 modes, then take the manual out and play with it's....... 1 mode!? Who can be bothered changing gears all day, especially in stop start traffic, when you have a gearbox smart enough to do it for you.

GO THE ZF.

[JP300]

I did not have a choice. At the time of buying the car the auto was the only option as my missus wanted to be able to drive it so she could drive me home from parties.

Since doing the mods she no longer wants to drive it. She sh%t herself a couple times driving it around town and after I showed her what the car car do at 100ks she totally refuses to drive it.

I love driving manual and dont mind crawling around in the traffic with a manual.

The manual does give you a lot more control at speed. Looking at the power that Brian (BCL) is making, through a standard 6 speed manual wit an uprated clutch, then that should be considered if you are looking at 400+ rwkw.

[Elias]

The ZF might have 3 modes, but the manual has all three whenever you need them and in any combination. I haven't driven the ZF so I'm not knocking it. If anything all I hear is praise. But you can't argue that this auto can be more intuative than a manual.

[tab]

What is intuitive about a manual gearbox?

[Elias]

obviously you're not very intuative to understand what I meant .. The driver picks the gear in the manual, so the intuativeness on the manual comes down to that of the driver, The human mind is more intuative than a programmed automatic transmission I would say.

[tab]

My intuition did let me down; I interpreted your post exactly as you wrote it. Should have assumed you meant something different to what you actually posted I guess.

And you’re that intuitive you feel compelled to comment on something you’ve never used. You simply are amazing

PS: The world is not flat.

[XR_Brute]

  Elias said:

The ZF might have 3 modes, but the manual has all three whenever you need them and in any combination. I haven't driven the ZF so I'm not knocking it. If anything all I hear is praise. But you can't argue that this auto can be more intuative than a manual.

How can the manual have all 3 modes when you need them?.... 2 of the 3 modes are fully automatic

[Elias]

tab - I dont need to have used it to realise that the ZF will not know exactly which gear the driver wants better than the driver, the fact that the ZF has the different modes and the tiptronic function is a good indicator that this is the case.

Brute - you select the modes on the auto depending on how you want to drive, with the manual you dont need to select anything as such, just change gears as you see fit under the circumstances. Hard to explain, but I"m sure you're bright enough to get my drift.

Keeping with the forum topic, the best way to choose is to drive them both and decide from that. This is what I'm going to do before I buy one.

[Craig.]

  Elias said:

Keeping with the forum topic, the best way to choose is to drive them both and decide from that. This is what I'm going to do before I buy one.

Its horses for courses. Are you a 1/4 mile addict or a track day junkie? Drive mainly on country roads or do you spend the majority of your time in grid lock, stop start traffic?

I drove both before I bought. I thought that the ZF was a great box and did cosider it but I decided to go with the manual.

Why? Because it puts a smile on my face driving a manual. I personally find autos boring and even in fully manual mode, the ZF doesn't have the same feel or character as a manual box. The whole car has a different character to it from one box to the other.

Another consideration was the fact that no one had cracked the code on how to firm up the shifts on the ZF at that stage. As it was my plan to mod the car, I thought a T56 with a good clutch would be a better proposition than a manual that had to remain as it left the factory

Edited 02/03/08 05:08 AM by craiginmackay