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You're guilty as sin then, since you stated you sold your company to Bill Gates' Microsoft.
I was being sarcastic or ironic, or making a joke... attempting to, anyway. I don't know him and he doesn't know me!
But no I never sold out to Microsoft. I bought my first Corvette after writing the zip support in Windows, though, and sold it to them. That might be what you heard. But then I worked there for a long time after that as a day job.
Every track should have a Red A8 Convertible with chrome wheels running in the mix!
Someone has to compensate for all the Arctic white coupes with black wheels that never leave the suburbs
Sometimes California guys say "Pacific Northwest" to still mean within California!
But if anyone is going to do a track day or HPDE at the Seattle track, send out a heads-up, I'll try to join.
You could even post it in Regional but nobody reads regional so no one would show up! :-)
I am heading to Oregon raceway park, Portland international raceway, and the ridge motorsport park. I am also trying to get up to area 20 whatever it is on the other side of the Canadian border. I will definitely let you know!
St. Jude Donor '05-'06-'07-'08-'09, '14-'15-'16-'17-'18
Originally Posted by theplatinumog
I am heading to Oregon raceway park, Portland international raceway, and the ridge motorsport park. I am also trying to get up to area 20 whatever it is on the other side of the Canadian border. I will definitely let you know!
I did an SCCA Track Nights in America HPDE event last summer at The Ridge and had a blast. Looking forward to doing it again...
Most people like my wife consider a car an appliance so their enjoyment is the same no matter what vehicle.
I recently bought a 2019 Grand Sport from Macmulkin Corvettes in NH, They had 20+ M7's in stock in every color.
Mine is a 2lt and I am enjoying driving/shifting this new unit. Check out MacMulkin on line. I saved around $9500 off the MSRP. The "local" dealers in my area only have 2 or 3 vettes in stock. Call MacMulkin and they will arrange to ship in anywhere.
Manual versus automatic is like a point-and-shoot camera versus a DSLR camera. Both produce good results but the DSLR camera (manual transmission) has more control and does exactly what you want. In a manual, if I want to downshift and skip a gear, I can unlike an automatic that has to go through each gear. A manual just looks sportier and looks right in a sports car, that's why you see automatic shifters mimic the look of a manual shift ****; before the year 2000, automatic shifters had a wide handle with the button on the left side for your thumb.
Would you call a person with a point-and-shoot camera an enthusiast? I doubt it.
Who in hell are you?
If this thread were a closed room, and your wise, cogent, and brilliant posts were farts - the odor would choke a maggot.
Do you have a twitter feed I can follow? Guess I'll go peruse all of your wise, sage posts.
This forum needs more people like you, bringing light to the dark masses of asses that post opinions here like a cat posts to a litter box.
LOL. Yes it's amazing how many can't drive a manual these days. However it's making me feel old ��
I just got back yesterday from a 2 weeks vacation driving in France (Paris, Mont Saint Michel, Normandy coast, Lille, Amiens) and 4 Belgium cities (Bruge, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp); practically all cars were stickshifts.
The roads were narrow in Paris especially with motorcycles and police cars going between cars. Paris parking garages were extremely narrow and had sharp/tight turns. Parisians are amazing drivers and even better at parking into tight spaces which were tighter than in New York Manhattan and San Francisco. I picked up a Parisian tip to avoid getting rear-ended if you have to stop suddenly on the freeway by briefly turning on your hazard blinkers.
Well, this thread has gone all over the place, like subjective threads always do. At least it hasn't erupted in flames.
I learned to drive on Mom's 3 on-the-tree manual. I've had many manuals since and have enjoyed banging the gears. I'm sure the M7 is one hell of a blast when that's what you want to do. But I also enjoy just driving around being "lazy" as some have called it. Lazy can be fun, too. BTW I have a '15 coupe with A8 that I ordered and took museum delivery.
There are a few misconceptions in previous posts. One I'd like to address is the idea that, as someone put it, sports cars are meant to be stick shift, have been forever. I'd like to remind everyone that Corvette first came with only an automatic. Yep, America's Sportscar only came with an auto, A2 I believe they called it. And if that isn't weird enough, the shift pattern for the shifter is upside down! Ever looked at one? Reverse is in the wrong place, too, at least compared to today. See the pic below. We do still consider this car a sports car, don't we? I haven't checked the stats but I'd bet every generation and every year model had an automatic trans as an option.
Another misconception is that an automatic has to be sequentially shifted. Many M7 owners aren't familiar with the forced downshift. If you hold the left paddle, downshift paddle, for a second the computer will shift down, in a single stroke, to the lowest possible gear for the speed you're driving, within physical limits. The computer will not allow you to shift too low and over rev the engine. Bet your M7 won't give that guarantee. Also available, and some A8 owners may not know this, but you can double click the downshift paddle, or even triple click it, for super fast downshifts. As a side benefit the A8 never grinds or misses a gear. Its a lot of fun driving the Tail of the Dragon, for instance, with both hands tight on the wheel, shifting up and down with a single finger on each hand, and hearing the beautiful V8 burble coming through the open NPP exhaust, rev match always up and running.
I'm not here to convince anyone that mine is better, I just hate hearing mine isn't as good. That just isn't true. As for which transmission is more fun then that's as subjective as anything can be. To each, his own. Bear in mind, you can't judge something you've never done.
'53 Corvette Not only is the shift pattern upside down, the reverse is in the wrong place. What's up with that?
Just picked up a 2019 Watkins Gray coupe with manual. While auto would have been fine, when I don't have a stick I miss it. Traffic can be a drag with the stick but a lot more fun to drive overall.
Well, this thread has gone all over the place, like subjective threads always do. At least it hasn't erupted in flames.
I learned to drive on Mom's 3 on-the-tree manual. I've had many manuals since and have enjoyed banging the gears. I'm sure the M7 is one hell of a blast when that's what you want to do. But I also enjoy just driving around being "lazy" as some have called it. Lazy can be fun, too. BTW I have a '15 coupe with A8 that I ordered and took museum delivery.
There are a few misconceptions in previous posts. One I'd like to address is the idea that, as someone put it, sports cars are meant to be stick shift, have been forever. I'd like to remind everyone that Corvette first came with only an automatic. Yep, America's Sportscar only came with an auto, A2 I believe they called it. And if that isn't weird enough, the shift pattern for the shifter is upside down! Ever looked at one? Reverse is in the wrong place, too, at least compared to today. See the pic below. We do still consider this car a sports car, don't we? I haven't checked the stats but I'd bet every generation and every year model had an automatic trans as an option.
Another misconception is that an automatic has to be sequentially shifted. Many M7 owners aren't familiar with the forced downshift. If you hold the left paddle, downshift paddle, for a second the computer will shift down, in a single stroke, to the lowest possible gear for the speed you're driving, within physical limits. The computer will not allow you to shift too low and over rev the engine. Bet your M7 won't give that guarantee. Also available, and some A8 owners may not know this, but you can double click the downshift paddle, or even triple click it, for super fast downshifts. As a side benefit the A8 never grinds or misses a gear. Its a lot of fun driving the Tail of the Dragon, for instance, with both hands tight on the wheel, shifting up and down with a single finger on each hand, and hearing the beautiful V8 burble coming through the open NPP exhaust, rev match always up and running.
I'm not here to convince anyone that mine is better, I just hate hearing mine isn't as good. That just isn't true. As for which transmission is more fun then that's as subjective as anything can be. To each, his own. Bear in mind, you can't judge something you've never done.
'53 Corvette Not only is the shift pattern upside down, the reverse is in the wrong place. What's up with that?
Yes the 1st Corvette had an auto tranny but that did not sell well against the Europeans which had a manual, so this 1st version of the C1 Corvette was considered a sporty car instead of a sports car.
So GM offered the 2nd version of the C1 Corvette with a 3 speed manual tranny and V8 which put it on par with the Europeans and that's when "Sales jumped from 700 in 1955 to 3,467". http://www.superchevy.com/features/1...-great-finish/
Well, this thread has gone all over the place, like subjective threads always do. At least it hasn't erupted in flames.
I learned to drive on Mom's 3 on-the-tree manual. I've had many manuals since and have enjoyed banging the gears. I'm sure the M7 is one hell of a blast when that's what you want to do. But I also enjoy just driving around being "lazy" as some have called it. Lazy can be fun, too. BTW I have a '15 coupe with A8 that I ordered and took museum delivery.
There are a few misconceptions in previous posts. One I'd like to address is the idea that, as someone put it, sports cars are meant to be stick shift, have been forever. I'd like to remind everyone that Corvette first came with only an automatic. Yep, America's Sportscar only came with an auto, A2 I believe they called it. And if that isn't weird enough, the shift pattern for the shifter is upside down! Ever looked at one? Reverse is in the wrong place, too, at least compared to today. See the pic below. We do still consider this car a sports car, don't we? I haven't checked the stats but I'd bet every generation and every year model had an automatic trans as an option.
Another misconception is that an automatic has to be sequentially shifted. Many M7 owners aren't familiar with the forced downshift. If you hold the left paddle, downshift paddle, for a second the computer will shift down, in a single stroke, to the lowest possible gear for the speed you're driving, within physical limits. The computer will not allow you to shift too low and over rev the engine. Bet your M7 won't give that guarantee. Also available, and some A8 owners may not know this, but you can double click the downshift paddle, or even triple click it, for super fast downshifts. As a side benefit the A8 never grinds or misses a gear. Its a lot of fun driving the Tail of the Dragon, for instance, with both hands tight on the wheel, shifting up and down with a single finger on each hand, and hearing the beautiful V8 burble coming through the open NPP exhaust, rev match always up and running.
I'm not here to convince anyone that mine is better, I just hate hearing mine isn't as good. That just isn't true. As for which transmission is more fun then that's as subjective as anything can be. To each, his own. Bear in mind, you can't judge something you've never done.
'53 Corvette Not only is the shift pattern upside down, the reverse is in the wrong place. What's up with that?
This is a good post. I enjoy being lazy too.
My only thought about holding down the downshift paddle on track (I have done it) is that it is still firing down through the gears. If we are entering a HARD braking zone, maybe 140 or 150 into a 30mph left (I am picturing fontana speedway T2) it is still going to go 5,4,3,2. Be very high in the revs when I roll into it and then start banging upshifts 2,3,4 before turn 3. In my manual car, i go hard on the brakes and wait to rev-match until I am doing let's say... 50 and going straight from 5th to 3rd staying in third through the corner, and upshifting once before the next corner. I shift 2 times total, the auto did at least 5 in that section of track. That happening every corner is part of the overheating issues we see with the a8's in track. They shift a lot.
I was being sarcastic or ironic, or making a joke... attempting to, anyway. I don't know him and he doesn't know me!
But no I never sold out to Microsoft. I bought my first Corvette after writing the zip support in Windows, though, and sold it to them. That might be what you heard. But then I worked there for a long time after that as a day job.
So, you're more FOS than a Christmas turkey then. You lied when you stated here on forum that you sold your company to Microsoft. What a phoney! Then, you complain about your $100K POS Audi that's not worth jack squat. Thanks for outing yourself.
Well, this thread has gone all over the place, like subjective threads always do. At least it hasn't erupted in flames.
I learned to drive on Mom's 3 on-the-tree manual. I've had many manuals since and have enjoyed banging the gears. I'm sure the M7 is one hell of a blast when that's what you want to do. But I also enjoy just driving around being "lazy" as some have called it. Lazy can be fun, too. BTW I have a '15 coupe with A8 that I ordered and took museum delivery.
There are a few misconceptions in previous posts. One I'd like to address is the idea that, as someone put it, sports cars are meant to be stick shift, have been forever. I'd like to remind everyone that Corvette first came with only an automatic. Yep, America's Sportscar only came with an auto, A2 I believe they called it. And if that isn't weird enough, the shift pattern for the shifter is upside down! Ever looked at one? Reverse is in the wrong place, too, at least compared to today. See the pic below. We do still consider this car a sports car, don't we? I haven't checked the stats but I'd bet every generation and every year model had an automatic trans as an option.
Another misconception is that an automatic has to be sequentially shifted. Many M7 owners aren't familiar with the forced downshift. If you hold the left paddle, downshift paddle, for a second the computer will shift down, in a single stroke, to the lowest possible gear for the speed you're driving, within physical limits. The computer will not allow you to shift too low and over rev the engine. Bet your M7 won't give that guarantee. Also available, and some A8 owners may not know this, but you can double click the downshift paddle, or even triple click it, for super fast downshifts. As a side benefit the A8 never grinds or misses a gear. Its a lot of fun driving the Tail of the Dragon, for instance, with both hands tight on the wheel, shifting up and down with a single finger on each hand, and hearing the beautiful V8 burble coming through the open NPP exhaust, rev match always up and running.
I'm not here to convince anyone that mine is better, I just hate hearing mine isn't as good. That just isn't true. As for which transmission is more fun then that's as subjective as anything can be. To each, his own. Bear in mind, you can't judge something you've never done.
'53 Corvette Not only is the shift pattern upside down, the reverse is in the wrong place. What's up with that?
I always had Manual Corvettes but I noticed 90% of the Vette at Dealers have the A8. Is no one buying the 7 speed manual anymore? IMO a sports car should be a Manual
Although playing an instrument (say a piano) of your favorite song is not going to be as perfect as playing a CD, it is more satisfying. Likewise while a stickshift may not be as fast in a straight line as an auto tranny, it is more satisfying.
By the way, around the track the stickshift is faster.
By the way, around the track the stickshift is faster.
Not really. They made SEVERAL re-attempts with the M7 to finally get it to match and slightly beat the A8 time at Big Willow, but if they had tried several more times to improve the A8s time, what do you think would have happened?
Fastest car around any road course is still an auto, though usually a DCT.
Not really. They made SEVERAL re-attempts with the M7 to finally get it to match and slightly beat the A8 time at Big Willow, but if they had tried several more times to improve the A8s time, what do you think would have happened?
Fastest car around any road course is still an auto, though usually a DCT.
I bought the 2017 C7 new at 48 years old while my joints and eyesight are still good so I want a manual transmission. If I were over 60, I'd probably get a Mercedes E or S series with an automatic.
05-24-2018, 09:34 PM
And if that isn't weird enough, the shift pattern for the shifter is upside down! Ever looked at one? Reverse is in the wrong place, too, at least compared to today. See the pic below. We do still consider this car a sports car, don't we? I haven't checked the stats but I'd bet every generation and every year model had an automatic trans as an option. 
