semi manuel

[jkhania]

how do you feel about clutchless transmissions. they make me mad...it takes the fun out of stick shift

[thesk8nmidget]

yeah agreed completely.

but i would really like an auto ti for daily driving in all this awful big city traffic! it would be really nice

[tiFreak]

my dad's M3 and my moms 323 have manual mode, I think it's better than an automatic but worse than a regular stick

[Watchmyradical]

They can be fun every once and a while but i wouldn't want one as my car. I drove a 2008 535xi a few weeks ago when my moms car was in for service. In the "sport" mode if feels sweet to have consistent power through all the gear shifts without doing anything.

[aceyx]

My friend's M3 has SMGII. It takes some getting used to and is pretty kickass but I still prefer more control even if it makes me slower.

Or at least the ability to tweak the programming.

[mohaughn]

Originally Posted by tiFreak

my dad's M3 and my moms 323 have manual mode, I think it's better than an automatic but worse than a regular stick

I guess my take on this is that the manual mode on an automatic transmission is still an automatic transmission....

SMG is a manual transmission with a computer controlled hydraulic clutch.

They are very different animals. SMG type transmissions are great, and they are proven to be faster around the track. F1 wouldn't use them if it wasn't faster. When you are on a track what you are doing with the clutch is only a small part of the overall experience. I would not feel that I was any less of a driver, or enjoy the experience any less if I did have a car with SMG.

A lot of straight cut gear boxes can be shifted without using the clutch. Drivers that can do this are usually considered to be skilled drivers. I certainly know that the few cars I've driven with true racing transmissions my shifting was not that clean and I would not have even tried to do it without using the clutch.

[anthonyl]

I dont like them. I really dont like it when people say they have a stick and there is no clutch. Its annoying to have to explain that to people. who is manuel?

[zboot]

well yeah, you can shift any manual when you rev match the engine to the transmission without the clutch.

I did that one afternoon in tallahassee - went from 1st to 5th then back down to 2nd without using the clutch. It is probably possible to go from 2nd to 1st w/o clutching. . but I was not going to do that to my car :-).

[tiFreak]

my friends mom has a Subaru with those "paddle-shifters" on the steering wheel, those I kinda like

my dad used to shift without the clutch in his 80-something Mazda GLC (which, no joke, stands for Great Little Car ) he had well over 200k on it, in NYC, with the original clutch

[anthonyl]

Yep, I learned how to do that from a truck driver. The only time you need to use the clutch is when your starting from a stop. I dont do it anymore because every once in a while I would miss the proper rpm and grind the gears.

[angel318ti]

Who's Manuel????

[tiFreak]

Originally Posted by angel318ti

Who's Manuel????

haha, I just noticed that

[naustin]

Yeah he's not talking about those autos with the pretend manual thing i dont think.. He means SMG or the like. I cant pass judgement on it until i try one out. Sounds great for a track car for sure, can shift faster than i ever could.

[BakeR318]

Originally Posted by angel318ti

Who's Manuel????

Rofl...first thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title as well...

[Instigater]

I had an oportunity to testdrive X3 3.0sd. It has 283 bhp and 580 torques. 6.6 sec to 60 mph with a SUV. That twinturbo diesel is a real beast. I had to admit that I would no be able to shift faster than this new SMG gearbox.