Corvette C7 vs BMW 135i Boils Down to Manual vs Automatic

By Detroit Steel - June 9, 2015

Road TV

The video below perfectly displays how driving a manual Corvette is quickly becoming a lost art form.

With all the talk about being more “one with the car” when driving a manual sports car, it’s pretty clear this C7 driver probably would have been better off in the new eight-speed automatic.

Right from the start of the video, it’s evident the Corvette was going to be no match for the twin-turbo BMW 135i (equipped with an automatic trans) in this quarter-mile drag race. But the redeeming factor is that the Corvette’s loss can clearly be attributed to poor driver shifting, more so than the actual speed of the C7.

This could also explain why about 60 percent of C7 buyers, many of them first-time Corvette owners, are opting for the automatic transmission over the manual.