I'm thinking of the mods down the road and was wondering if it would be worth buying a Vigilante converter matched to my cars "will-be" setup or a 5spd with a nice strong clutch? I'm not gonna have a car with 400hp or anything like that, I'm thinking 250whp at the very most. The TQ conv. would keep me in the powerband, but a 5spd would allow me to have more power from less drive train loss and shift higher right? But I hear how people will lose .5 in the 1/4 from a nice stall converter, but a manual car is .5 seconds faster.

So which one is a normal setting, who would win?

Aren't 5spds pretty cheap as well? I mean cost for cost are they the same?

 

In a perfect world the 5 speed should win out since there is no loss of acceleration due to slippage that convertors have.

But practically speaking, I'd take a auto in a race car for straight lining/daily driving anyday. manuals put alot of stress into the drivetrain parts with the typical clutches drops that get 100% of the hit on the hit.

The biggest question you should ask yourself is how will the car be used primarily since application will dictate best course of action. For drag strip applications, auto all the way. Less strain on parts and alot more consistant-missed gears with normal gear boxes are very common.

For autocrossing the 5/6 speed hands down

Street driving, depends on how much you like going through gears at every stop light, I've been there done that and it's fun at first and the few times your playing...but since most of the time your just driving it, it becomes real old real fast...especially when hitting a drive through LOL!!

 

Cool. Thanks. Now the install of a tq conv, simple as unbolting & dropping the tranny , remove stock conv, install new conv, then reinstall tranny?

 

yep, that simple. add a 1/2 to a quart of fluid to the convertor before installation though.

 

The 5 speed doesn't have the torque multiplication of the converter on the launch either though.