Quote:
Originally Posted by MoreSpeed
As to no skill needed to drive a modern A10... "just push the gas pedal", that is a bit misguided and I am sure said to spur conversation. Pretty much every week, there is someone who stuffs their high tech car into the Armco. Driving at 9/10th or 10/10th's is anything but easy. Throw different drivers in the mix, different closing speeds, variations in track grip, the radiator fluid that the bozo in front of you just squirted all over the track with his or her non maintained car... off camber turns, etc,, etc.. It is a lot more involved than initially meets the eye for either a manual or Auto. Based on the above initial statement, it should be easy to be an Astronaut. All you have to do is sit in a chair.
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HaHa! Yeah, there's a few provocative phrases in your post too.
Road tracks do require a lot of skill, whether you're driving an automatic or manual transmission. Some of the same skills apply to both; like reading track conditions, judging closing speed, approaching and leaving the apex, when to start braking, finding the best line, etc. Although driving a manual may put you at a disadvantage against an automatic in terms of overall performance, it requires additional skills. Heel-toe-braking, trail-braking, shift timing by the sound of the throttle, rev-matching, physical conditioning, etc. all require more work to learn. Learning and using those skills is very gratifying, especially when they can be used against other drivers with similar equipment. IMO competition is most exciting when you're pitting one driver's skills against another. If there is a large disparity between the performance of the cars themselves, you're comparing cars not driving skill. Sure the driver will take credit for the win but the true test is how the drivers perform in roughly equivalent machines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoreSpeed
I kind of wish all of this technology was not allowed in racing as well. That soft squishy lump in the drivers seat is absolutely the limiting factor today. The cars are amazing now. It would be nice to get back to some of the old day series racing where everyone had the exact same low tech vehicles.
Also, with a manual, a well executed heal toe downshift is a thing of beauty. Oh wait, even the Manual 6 will do that for you with rev matching. Oh the manual has stability control as well, traction control, variable magnetic ride suspension, high tech LSD, etc... It looks like we would all have to be racing 1969 series cars to get away from all of the go fast, be safe technology that even the basic Camaros' have today. All these technologies also take away driver involvement. Ever drive an old 1970 with hardly any brakes and all that body roll fast? That is involvement.
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This all becomes abundantly clear when you squeeze onto a formula car with zero electronic assistance. Flying by the seat of your pants is one of the most exhilarating experiences in motor sports IMO. Although I eagerly await my M6 ZL1, with its traction control, electronic LSD, MRC, and all its other goodes; I've never had as much fun driving as I did in the Bondurant Mazda Formula cars. The only help they have is a rev limiter. They don't even have ABS. There's no cushion in the seat pan either, by the way. Not one of the comforts I would have chosen to remove.
As for racing automatic machines against those with varying degrees of manual controls, one is not "better" than the other - just different. Whether one is more appealing to you depends upon your preferences and skills. For me, I'd like to drive them all but I'm buying the ZL1 M6.
--Cal