ok me and my friend are have a huge debate on which tranny (auto or manual) is best for drag racing please help with concrete reasons why its better

 

a properly built and maintained automatic, that is shifting itself, will be more consistent, yet because it is heavier and has more stuff in it that the motor has to turn will be a larger parasitic loss of power to the rear wheels

a manual trans, will never be shifted exactly the same as the previous run i don't care how consistent you think you are, humans are not perfect,

NOW i'm NOT saying machines are, but in this case they are better at being repetitive

now your gonna look at my sig and say, "but he has a manual"
this is true but i have yet to drag race it(the time is from when it was an auto) and i only race once or twice a year,

but thats not the point of this post so on we go with our lives

 

I may be wrong but I think the "manual's are better," saying comes from a long time back, when automatic transmissions weren't strong enough to handle all the power and torque racing engines were feeding them, and caused many racers to go home with broken tranny's, while the manual guys were still getting in their last runs.

But today automatics can be built to handle just as much power and they're a lot stronger. With computer controlled shift points in some of the newer auto's, I don't think you're gonna get much better at consistency with a manual.

My opinion, I'd rather race an auto (only 'case I can't shift .) Maybe some other opinions can come into this post too 'cause I'm interested to see what they are...

 

i agree with firechicken. the key to drag racing, besides speed, it consistensy. a properly built auto will shift more consistently than a manual. though he does make a good point about the rotating mass of an auto trans. personally, i would use an auto for drag racing and a manual for auto crossing as you can control the rpm's better......

 

id have to say auto trans are better for drag racing. even though they have a 5% more power absorbtion over a manual, they are more consistant. you can go run a 14.0 in a stick car one run, then come back and miss a shift and hit a 14.5. and if your running 14.0's in a automatic, just make sure you got your launch down and youll be running 14.0's all night (give or take a tenth or two)... look at some of the past cars...prime example the Grand National, was fastest american production car in 87 and hey, what do you know..it was auto. also try driving a 10 second car and shift gears in it!

 

i was thinking more about this....and desided that it all depends on the car that you are driving. Integras, civics, preludes...all them are low Hp/TQ cars and are light weight. they need all the HP they can get out of there engine...in there case a stick shift is better.