[7thgear]

i think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences between an automatic and manual transmission

manual does not have more "oompf", manual has a 3rd pedal and requires you to do weird shit with your feet.

In return for this dexterous activity you receive the ability to dictate which gear you are in, and how long you are in it for. (there are other issues, such as strength and heat capacities, but we'll ignore those for now)

since no one can read your mind, automatics are discarded for race use because you don't want the car to downshift or upshift when you don't want it to.

However modern automatics are bridging that gap, engineers are finding ways to program into the gearboxes the behaviour a driver on a track would expect to perform as needed.

so in that regard, we're slowly on our way into an all automatic world.

if anything, these new MPG findings are only proof of that. The machine simply shifts gears at more optimal points than the human does. Skynet is online, hide yo kids.


and also, regarding "oompfs" in general... you don't want oompfs, because they are stress points, you want smooth power delivery during corner entrance, exit, and so forth.