georgiadawgs

Hi everybody,

New here but I'm considering buying a new 2017 Z06. I don't know anything about this type of car when it comes to preferring a manual transmission or an auto. I come from Lotus cars. Those are so light that manual is the way to go but they lack power. Also I had a Gallardo LP (2009) and that was paddle shifting not option for the manual.

So,is manual worth it on the Z06?

Much Obliged.

Zo62018A8

Will you be tracking this car often? Welcome to the board by the way.

VictorBarron

To each his own but I love my M7.

georgiadawgs

No tracking. Not my thing.

angryBits

I've owned both the Auto and the Manual for this car.

My opinion is that the Auto is the better commuter and the Manual is more fun (probably everyone's opinion)

However, the Auto isn't good for driving in Manual Mode, it will heat up and cause wear on the transmission. So if you get Auto, stay in Auto. The Manual is bullet proof and comes with Rev Match which makes shifting a breeze.

I've owned about 40 cars in my day, nearly all were Manual and I firmly believe the Manual in the C7 Corvette is among the best available.

Also to consider, the Manual 2017 Z06s received significant cooling improvements, the Auto got trivial cooling improvements.

My vote, get a Manual. Technically its not quite as fast in a straight line, but still plenty fast.

+ It sounds like you've got some $ $ $, I recommend the Z07 package. The brakes alone are worth it. Carbon Ceramic Brakes are beautiful, they don't overheat and they dont cause brake dust and the disks themselves last forever.

georgiadawgs

Thanks man for info. I was thinking about a Viper ACR-E but those are about $140k. and I never thought that a base MSRP Z06 was only about 80k until few days ago. I though this car with that monster engine was 100k or more.

cmrtil

Do not get the auto. GM's A8 is vastly inferior to the ZF 8-speed automatic, much less a top tier DCT like the Porsche PDK. Lag from the time you pull the paddle to the time the shift is executed can be measured in seconds if you are not at WOT.

Start watching the vid below around the 7:00 mark. Matt Farah's driven just about every car and gives an accurate, unbiased, humorous assessment of GM's A8.

Z06NJ

I have a coupe, manual, but for my next car the C8, I am seriously considering a convertible, automatic. I never thought I would say that, but it's true!

NSC5

The only way you are going to make the auto run hotter in manual mode than it does in full auto is if you either leave it in a much lower range than is needed for a long period of time or if you decide to continuously shift it (as in every 2 seconds) for which there is no good reason, the latter process could potentially cause heat buildup in the clutch packs but unless you were the annoying little kid who constantly turned a light switch on and off to annoy others this won't apply to you

It doesn't hurt it to shift it in manual and the controller will prevent you from manually selecting too high or too low a range for a given road speed. The actual shift actuation is the same whether operating in manual or automatic mode, the only difference is whether the shift command is generated directly by the controller of if the controller sends out the shift command based upon paddle input. In either case the controller generates the correct sequence and timing for the proper valves to control the hydraulics that ultimately result in the smooth shift from one range to another.

It doesn't matter which transmission you get, at certain times you will wish you had the other The key is choosing which one BEST suits your wants (wants because none of us needs a Z06) If you are tracking the car, having the extra engine cooler that fits in place of the front transmission cooler makes a lot of sense.

Even the older paddle shift automatics from GM never take "seconds" to respond to a paddle shift and the 8L90 lag will be well under a second even in cruising mode; my ATS with the 6L45 paddle shifts slower than the 8L90 in my 2016 Z06 but neither is that slow. Yes, a DCT can shift more quickly but there isn't one in the Z06 and even though the 8L90 is slower in paddle response than a good DCT it still shifts faster than a human shifted M7. At some point most of us are going to live long enough that our car choice will be electric and with no other choice except for color and perhaps an option to actually drive it ourselves.

I have owned manuals and automatics and I decided for my Z06 the A8 was the choice for me. For others the M7 will be the best choice. Transmission choice, wheel color, car color, etc. takes on a near religious level of zealotry on this forum which is most unfortunate.

angryBits

I was told by running the car in manual mode, you are prone to running the rpm higher (which I do).

rbartick

Actually, Tadge recommends paddle shifting the auto early to lower RPMs and temps.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/articl...heating-issue/

angryBits

I'm going to play devils advocate here, so please don't string me up.

The GM A8 is actually pretty fantastic IMO. We have to remember, it is NOT a DCT, its a Torque Converter! Which means you get all the benefits of longevity and avoid the maintenance quirks of reliability issues of DCT. As for speed, people try to compare it directly to a DCT and say its slow. It's not, its just trying to be smart. If you drive the A8 in commute traffic and try to shift and are expecting some nanosecond blip, you wont get it. The car knows you're put put putting. I drove the A8 for 6 months (always in manual mode) and found that with a little learning you can give the car the heads up you're going to shift and it becomes lightening fast. I mean Porsche PDK fast.

If you're driving hard, its incredibly quick, up shift and down shift. If you're commuting, just accelerate first, then down shift and it will be quick. If you're commuting, you have no need for a fast up shift.

Anyway, rant done. I've driven plenty of DCTs and I learned to work with the A8 and given the pros and cons preferred it over other DCTs.

I don't own the A8 anymore, so please dont think I'm biased, just trying to offer my experience.

EDIT: I HATED V4 MODE! w/ the A8 !! M7 makes this a non-issue.

cmrtil

Good points. I agree you don't need lightning fast shifts when you're just putting around town, but I'm still of the conviction that the shift should be initiated the instant the paddle is pulled. If the shift itself is slow, that's less of a concern. Why should we need to "work around" a slow responding paddle? And if we're just comparing torque converter autos and excluding DCTs, then I believe GM's A8 is lacking in that area compared to the ZF 8-speed. All I'm asking for is a torque converter auto that is on par with the ZF.

NSC5

It is also interesting that BMW publicly acknowledged that they will be moving away from DCT and back to torque converter automatics for high power engines because the DCT doesn't provide long term reliability at current (and ever increasing) power levels while the performance of "traditional" automatics have closed the gap.

davepl

So now that all the M7 guys have weighed in on the A8 they don't own, here's a perspective from someone who's had both. Actually, I have a DCT as well so I have "all three".

Get the auto unless you really like shifting yourself with a stick.

- The auto is faster on the drag strip
- The auto is faster on the road course
- The auto is faster on the street
- The auto is more fun to launch
- The auto can be paddle shifted and does it like lightning under load
- The auto has torque multiplication from the converter

But if you think pushing a pedal and moving a mechanical stick is more "fun" than pulling a paddle, and need that experience, stick with the M7. If short-shifting at part throttle before redline is how you drive, that's more rewarding in the M7 (the A8 will shift softly at low power, which annoys some M7 guys).

I've NEVER felt (though I can occasionally hear) the transition to M4. I guess it sucks in the manual cars if you do it in Eco, but I think it's fine on the automatic cars.

The M7s also suffer from an ANNOYING bog/stumble off the line that the A8s do not.

All in all, the A8 is the better performer, more fun to drive, easier in traffic, and by every measure except some elusive "driver involvement" metric, better.

Remember they used to set spark and mixture with manual levers in the cockpit too. Those days are over.

As for resale, the majority of owners buy A8s.

What I find most perplexing is how angry the M7 owners get over anyone liking the A8. It gets personal really quickly (just watch!)

2fastnow

The Carbon Ceramic disks last forever? That's great...new to me. Just replace pads and you're set, nice.

rbartick

My M7's transition to V4 is basically seamless. I can barely feel or hear it. This is not something that is even worthy of discussion. Avoiding ECO with an M7 is as easy as selecting Touring mode. ECO cannot be disabled with the A8.

My M7 has no bog or stumble off the line.

davepl

You're lucky, as there are currently multiple threads on how annoying it is, potential fixes, and so on. People are porting physically throttle bodies, retuning ECMs, whatever it takes.

rbartick

I've read all of that and I still can't figure out what everyone is complaining about. I would have been completely oblivious to this issue if it wasn't for this forum and I've posted that numerous times. I even posted videos that show my car is fine.

2fastnow

I think with a manual there is this 'challenge of skill'. There's always a possibility of a miss shift or wrong gear to make it interesting and rewarding.
With an automatic there is this 'click' then there's this electric car ride at the carnival....snore.