Quote:
Originally Posted by vant
This makes sense on a race track, where every second counts. Also, the media is putting ridiculous pressure on manufacturers to squeeze every last ounce of performance from their cars for the sake of magazine comparisons, which sadly a lot of drivers regard as gospel. Things are pretty bad when a car is considered a POS for being 2/10ths of a second slower in the quarter than its competition. But dual clutch would make up that difference for sure. The numbers are all some people care about. It’s human nature to want to be better than the next guy.
On the street, however, I can't think of anything more boring than a paddle shifter, except maybe a full-blown automatic. Manual transmissions (MT) are more satisfying, sans the day I start taking street driving too seriously. It’s a sports car, not a Formula 1 race car.
On another note, through exhaustive research I've discovered a particular area of the hypothalamus responsible for MT stimulation. Unfortunately, this area of the brain is underdeveloped in a particular segment of the population, who prefer paddleshifting over a real clutch pedal. The condition is known as "Schumacher-wannabius". Sadly, medical science has found no cure to date.
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that was funny as he!!, but I must counterpoint (in fun)
Magazine comparisons are fun because its fun to argue and debate and talk and ponder and dream. Lets face it, I have a Z06 and not an S-class benz because of those magazine comparisons that I read and dreamed about and debated and pondered...
... when I was 10. My hypothalamus was preoccupied with a bicycle.
Its fun. To many folks i'm sure their 'Vette is something they baby, they stare at out a window with a grin and drive on sunny days. Like my neighbor with his. He'll probably never spin its tires or go above 3000 rpm, but he knows everything about it, and mine, he!!, more than I know about mine. And he's proud of it, and it makes his life a ltitle bit better i'd wager. And he brings me all the reviews of my Z06 going faster than Ferarri's or 911 Turbos or wahtever, and thats fun to talk about over some BBQ.
To him is the challenge or manliness or whatever of a stick on the street worth more than the fun of having something just that little bit closer to the best? Probably not. I won't tell him that the paddles on his C6 link to an automatic and that its not nearly the same as whats in a Ferarri if you don't.
I got my first stick shift when I was 22. In a honda. With 110hp. It was alot cooler then to have a jap car with a stick than a big 80's era american boat. my hypothalamus, what little of it wasn't saturated with ethanol and THC, was preoccupied with the local hooters staff. I sucked at downshifting that too, so I simply didn't.
Its natural beyond natural to want our things to be "good" or even "the best", and its fun. Do hardwood floors make a house any more fun to live in? Not beyond the "Shumachus wannabius" factor. Or the "richusan famis" factor.
My cars not a race car and I'm not anywhere near a racecar driver (but i'm 100% willing to go for top speed, come death or a ticket, if I can find a road that is somewhat practical to try this on). My hypothalamus is currently preoccupied with the 54 year old guy I fired just. He cried. Skipped work 4 days got 3 last-warnings,a nd then bawled his brains out when he finally got canned. You know how unnerving it is to watch grown men cry? What the he!! is wrong with them?
I don't have any race driver fantasies, my biggest fear about going to a racing school isn't that i wont be great, its that if i loaf around the corners on a nice slow learning curve i'll wind up being in everybodies way... and if I unleash the LS7 on a straight they'll be in mine. I'm way to busy/full to try to be serious about a hobby.
But I want a paddle shifted manual. I want the ZR1 to be the magazine king. Its good for me as a reborn vette lover, i'm proud of it. Its good for america to have something to shut american-hating liberals up, and its good for everybody who owns a ZR1 to read about and feel good.
Magazine racing is good. Its no different than 99% of the people in las vegas suffering from "bigshotus pretendus", and they are pretending. They can't afford to go, I can, but I don't judge them harshly for it (and i don't gamble). I assume that adds something to their life or they wouldn't do it. All the power to 'em. Its no different than any guy with a hot chick thats not his in an avatar or a poster on a wall. Its no different than a bunch of high school girls screaming at nice cars from their dads buick, and its at the core of the single greatest attribute of the human animal - the drive to be great. Thats what built the bridge you drove over to work, the keyboard i'm typing on, and the shiny black 'Vette i'm going to go stare at for a minute when i'm done with this post. And the shorts my g/f is wearing today too.
Of course, going to a track is one step up the ladder of what makes the human animal great - actually trying something - but whatever.
Bring the paddle shifted manual, leave the regular stick as an option for people who want to come up with some Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear back-ass old school logic for why its better. But me, i'll take progress, please, with a side of bernaise.
Especially in America's Heartthrob.
