Originally Posted by Pumpkinhead

I am not sure how you are coming to the conclusion that autos are more reliable for spirited driving. Until recently, most autos have more often than not hampered that kind of driving due to slow shift speed and "gear hunting". On top of that, autos create quite a bit more heat than a manual transmission does under heavy "spirited" driving loads, which will have an eventual significant impact on transmission life. Another thing to look at with a turboed auto would be the possibility of gear slippage under hard acceleration. Turbo cars straight from the manufacturer with auto transmissions are a completely different animal than aftermarket set-ups. Not to say that putting a turbo on a Z equipped with an auto is a bad idea, but you definitely stand the possibility of running into more possible drivetrain issues than those running high power FI on manual gearboxes. We have yet to really see how the current 7sp autos will stand up to the increased power and heat issues that a turbo system could incur though, so right now it would seem that most anyone's insight would be based off past models and experiences.