yes you did

 

 

ARM turns heads everywhere you go.

 

You would be right.

I have my Z in manual and i also have an '18 wrx lol.

The Z is easier to drive. I don't even want to get into the wrx and subaru's "rev hang", I felt like a total noob to manual the first week of owning my wrx. An accessport remedied part of the issue, but the rev hang is still there. I got used to it though.

And yes if the A8 could downshift like the manual with rev match on, MAYBE i would have considered the A8. But the trans is too inferior. It just doesn't shift properly unless your foot is slammed into the firewall. Who wants fast shifts only at redline? Why can't it be fast like AMG's or M cars? IT shifts fast at any rpm??

Oh yeah i forgot, GM didn't put a dual clutch in yet.

Until then, manual all the way!

Congrats on the MANual Z!

 

You did the right thing. The M7 is the best shifting car I've ever had and so much more fun than the A8. I've driven both and prefer the M7 by far. If I didn't want to drive I'd take the bus!

 

I agree, the M7 is the only way to go. That being said I'm a bit surprised the auto guys haven't been here saying how much faster their car is

 

 

I seriously considered the A8. I had a really great deal on a used one but decided to go with a new car and the M7. The reason the used one had such a great price it was a buyback due to the owner complaining about track overheating. It wasn't even a year old, had 3500 miles and had everything I wanted including the color. However, since I track my car a lot I didn't want to take a chance on the overheating and purchased a new M7.

From an overall driving standpoint I doubt there is much difference between the two. If you want you can supposedly control the gears you are in by choosing manual mode with the automatic. The biggest benefit would be in heavy traffic and when my left knee starts to feel pain due to a partial bone on bone condition where about half of knee cartilage has disappeared. As for using the paddles instead of a pole sticking out of the console I don't think it makes any difference. The location of the shifter has moved from the floor to the column and back to the floor and now back to the column. I learned to drive with three on the tree and some time later converted my 55 Chevy to a 3 speed floor shifter with a beer tap as the shift handle to be cool. The big advantage of doing that was the floor shifter was less likely to jam than the complicated mechanism required to implement the column shifter.

Except at lower speeds the nice thing about the M7 is it is almost as shiftless as the A8. Third, Fourth and Fifth gears are all pretty responsive, The car will accelerate hard in third and fourth and the speed range is pretty large on both. On track I run third gear from about 50 mph up to 120 and fourth from 120 to 150. So on most tracks that means there is no more than three upshifts and three downshifts per lap. Shifting doesn't make the driving, braking and throttle control make the driving as that is where the skill lies not in how fast you can shift or downshift. What is really interesting is how fast you can get around a track just leaving the car in fourth gear and driving it more like it is a momentum car. I like doing that with novice students since I they can focus on learning to drive Vs playing around with the shifter.

I am pretty sure if the A8 hadn't been causing the on track engine cooling issues I would be driving and enjoying it right now. If I hadn't been interested in tracking the car the choice would have definitely been the A8. I have no idea what manually shifting a car has to do with being more involved, the amount of involvement doesn't change the type of involvement changes. If you have an automatic you have left foot braking available that is not all that easy to do with a clutch sitting in the way of your left foot. One place the manual transmission brings more involvement is when you are stuck in slow moving traffic going uphill for 5 or 10 miles. The constant pressing of the clutch, stopping, letting the clutch out and then repeating over and over and over with the clutch getting hot and smelly while all the other people just take their foot off the brake to let their cars creep forward a few feet. That is an involvement hat I want to avoid.
Bill

 

They're all out at the strip, laying down 10's...

 

They are all out at the road course, overheating lmfao!

 

So when people talk about drag racing and how other cars are faster than the vette in the straight, corvette guys default to, "corvette isn't a drag car, it's mean to be on a course".

Then when people say oh the corvettes are overheating on the track, corvette guys default to, "that might be true but idk, because i drag my car so i'm ok!"

lol. If the A8 actually shifted properly, i would say there is no place for M7 guys to talk smack. But the A8 is actually a pretty terrible trans if you think about it.

Falls flat after 4th gear, can't downshift, only upshifts really fast 3rd to 4th. Oh and it overheats on the road course. Pretty difficult for an enthusiast to have faith and confidence in buying an A8 Z.

 

To each their own but I just could not imagine driving any sports car not a manual shift. Had a 911 for 10 years that while not fast was so fun to drive and now the Z06 is just spectacular although I will say it s a lot of car and extremely powerful. I hope we are all on the forum at 80 writing about our manual cars................................ I was at an amazing car show this past Saturday with many Vettes and you would be happy to know plenty of guys in the their 70's and older driving a stick!!