My 6MT vs Auto driving impression. Opinions please

m4a1mustang

S2K

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Bucketlist2012

All AMG 's come with automatics..

Nothing wrong with a really good automatic...New technology is great.

Go back twenty years and you would NEVER buy an auto for road racing,,It would hesitate and then all of a sudden downshift and the compression would break the rear tires loose , and you could never time when the thing would down shift..

Modern automatics are way different now..I raced a friend twice in his 5.0 and my 350Z...I drove it manually once and then once i just left it in auto and drove it hard...

The car responded like a champ..Now in the 370Z, the auto is very cool, and I have always been an manual tranny purist.

I also drove the AMG and man that thing was way cool..Automatic but you could care less..Throw it in sport mode and let the fun begin..

The Z/28 is a close ratio 4 speed..If it was an automatic, i would have wrecked it years ago..

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2009 Sport/Touring 370Z
1971 Z/28 with coil overs, rushforth's, willwoods, Hotchkis. 4 speed
GMC Sierra1500

Jsolo

How do you drive a manual in auto mode?

Bucketlist2012

Sorry.

I meant I drove the auto in manual mode..I was actually faster when I left it in automatic. I was able to keep both hands on the wheel in the 350Z..

But I just got the 370Z with the paddle shifters and I have not gone out and driven it hard yet..

I am sure that the 370z and the paddle shifters are going to be fun.. I will be able to keep both hands on the wheel..

I do believe that a manual tranny is better for road racing, but the the new auto tranny is getting really good..

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2009 Sport/Touring 370Z
1971 Z/28 with coil overs, rushforth's, willwoods, Hotchkis. 4 speed
GMC Sierra1500

buddyZ

Im starting to wish i had gotten the automatic, almost all of my driving is stop and go driving in traffic and this manual is not only brutal, but kind of slow off the line.

MacLean

We will all have our doubts here & there about our purchases (AT or MT). Yes having a manual & in constant rush hr traffic (morning or evening) can be brutal, but when there isn't any traffic that makes up the difference hopefully.

kenchan

i think MT is easier to drive than AT in bumper to bumper unless you have to keep going up a steep hill for miles.

MacLean

So very true....... I am not a huge fan of steep inclines & I really doubt anybody would be.

wstar

I can't let a 7AT thread go by without commenting

The 7AT is pretty awesome, but personally I don't buy the "learning" thing.

The ECU does do some realtime self-tuning of the engine, and this does tend to "learn" a bit by homing in on previously-seen values, such that it will adapt to breathing mods, fuel grade changes, ambient/air temp changes, oil/coolant temp changes, etc.

But when it comes to user driving style, I don't think the ECU or especially the 7AT's TCM is doing any real learning. It's a myth. It's the driver who's doing the learning, adapting your brain and reactions to how the car likes to operate.

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7AT Track Car!
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Zenki370

+1 exactly what I was thinking

DarkJak

I haven't observed this in the 370z, but I do know for a fact that in the G37's 7AT, the shift points change after hard driving (foot deep in the pedal, hard braking). The car would downshift much earlier and upshift later. The change is even more noticeable in the sport mode of the transmission, which our 370Z automatics don't have. There, it will always downshift to keep revs above 3 or 4k. It's been a while, so I can't remember the actual cutoff. If I wasn't already driving it hard, then the auto wouldn't do that.

I haven't seen anything as drastic on the 370Z, since I keep it in manual mode in all but the most boring of drives. But if there was any learning, I doubt it'd be anything other than changing the shift points.

wstar

The shift points likely do change a bit based on driving conditions, but IMHO that would be a reaction to things like trans fluid temperature changes. That specific example is actually documented in the Service Manual: different shift strategies in different temp ranges. I still don't think it's making any conscious effort to adapt to "driving style".

Given the same current inputs (which there are a *ton* of: current RPM, current speed, gas/brake pedal positions, very short term gas/brake pedal history, ABS/ABLS/VDC state, fluid temps, available engine torque (which is a function of many inputs there: MAF/O2 readings, ambient air temp, coolant temp, dynamic timing from knock sensors, etc), etc...)...

... I think every car with the same code versions will react identically. They don't learn your "driving style" over the long term. Your driving style just changes those inputs directly or indirectly.

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

VCuomo

It's called Adaptive Shift Control - here's a link to Nissan's patent filing with the US PTO (and you'll notice from the dates on the document that it's not exactly "new technology"): Nissan's Adaptive Shift Control Patent

wstar

^ But again, that's just adaptability to current environmental/driving parameters, not a long-term "learning the style of the user". The patent is describing in detail loosely the same stuff that I wrote a couple posts above.

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UNKNOWN_370

This is what I described as "LEARNING". And if you read carefully? I did say IT DOES NOT REALLY LEARN, but adjusts according to drive style. But with time, it will self-tune itself a lot faster than new.

I will agree "Self-Tuning is a much better term than learning. But learrning was the only word I can think of at the moment. I do also believe SOME IS OUR ADJUSTMENT but the ecu seems to work faster as you add miles to the car and reverts quicker after a few thousand miles.. so there is adjustment on the ecu side.