[pkincy]

BMWs M Boss says:
“We are now seeing automatic transmissions with nine and even 10 speeds, so there’s a lot of technology in modern automatics,” he said.

“The DCT once had two advantages: it was light and its shift speeds were higher.

“Now, a lot of that shift-time advantage has disappeared as automatics get better and smarter.”

He also went on to say that he saw the future of high hp cars (BMWs with more than 450 hp) being fluid torque converter automatics. Then when asked why not use US transmissions as they are made for high hp (think behind the LT4), his reply was that they had looked at using US manual transmissions but"they are heavy and the shift quality is awful."

A most interesting take on the manual vs automatic discussion.