Automatic FRS

[oldpueblo]

Have driven MT all my life, but I intentionally picked the AT and love it.

[Optimus Prime]

Originally Posted by Hotrodheart

AT here. Since a spine injury, my legs don't work well enough for a MT. I'm glad an AT was available.

I, too, have a plethora of back issues with multiple surgeries. It definitely played in to my decision for an auto as well as my wife not being able to drive stick and thus play musical cars when she needs to get her Forester out.

[kavanagh]

I love this thread. Quality banter without the hate.


FWIW - I can heel-toe, my wife can heel-toe, my kids drive their own cars, I've been driving manuals since 1984, my wife for longer, I ride a CBR1000RR, my wife rides a GSXR 750... We love manuals with a passion, but we love performance even more.


We came back from our test drive in the manual and were ready to sign papers. The salesman said he had an auto pulled up front and it was all warmed up for us to take for a drive if we wanted to. We weren't going to, but they had gone to the trouble to pull it up and get it ready for us, so we decided to go for a little joy ride (plus it was the color we wanted and the sun was going down).


We drove home in the AT.


We both track it, and every twin owner who has driven our auto has nothing but smiles when we're done joyriding. I make a point of letting MT owners drive our car to see what it's really like before they get too obnoxious about hating on ATs. I used to be an AT hater, especially in the 90's when you could hear kids driving around with fart-cans on their automatic Hondas. I just despised the sound of an automatic shifting when it had an exhaust. This thing makes the most glorious sounds on up and downshifts when you've got an exhaust you can hear. sounds like an F1 car.


oh, and I triple-tap downshifts all day long 6-3 and 5-2. The trick is to get the triple-tap done within 200 ms. That's actually the reason there is any delay at all in the time from your input to the time of the shift. They could program out the delay and make up and downshifts instant to the paddle, but if they did that, then you could not skip gears - since the pause is there, you can skip gears.


The only thing I miss from a manual is the ability to coast. you can do it in regular Drive mode pretty easily by just slipping the lever to N, but I'm almost always in Manual shift and there's no quick way to get to Neutral. I would almost like to see a pull and hold on both paddles put it into neutral. But then how would it know what gear to return to when you let go of both paddles? I dunno...

[jschendel]

I bought an auto for the wife's daily driver. I have fun with it and glad we got it as I already have other fun cars. I will probably end up throwing an LS and convert to manual for drifting once it is paid off and we get a new car down the road.

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by oldpueblo

Have driven MT all my life, but I intentionally picked the AT and love it.

I didn't know you were an auto too. Do you ever make it out to Piggly's on Wednesday nights?

[J_kennington]

Kava, I really like the idea of implementing the, " pull both paddle to engage neutral." They could add code in the ecu to select gear afterwards based on engine load compared to speed. Pretty sure my other cars stand alone offers it for autos. Would be really cool if someone could figure a way out though.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by kavanagh

....oh, and I triple-tap downshifts all day long 6-3 and 5-2. ....

You can also go 5-1, I inadvertently did it yesterday....bounced off the rev limiter, not good when you do it not on purpose...

Originally Posted by kavanagh

The only thing I miss from a manual is the ability to coast. you can do it in regular Drive mode pretty easily by just slipping the lever to N, but I'm almost always in Manual shift and there's no quick way to get to Neutral. I would almost like to see a pull and hold on both paddles put it into neutral. But then how would it know what gear to return to when you let go of both paddles? I dunno...

Originally Posted by J_kennington

Kava, I really like the idea of implementing the, " pull both paddle to engage neutral." They could add code in the ecu to select gear afterwards based on engine load compared to speed. Pretty sure my other cars stand alone offers it for autos. Would be really cool if someone could figure a way out though.

Yea, that was one of the first thing I tried (pulling both for neutral) because it just seemed natural to be able to do it. I would have liked to have seen that as well.

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by J_kennington

Kava, I really like the idea of implementing the, " pull both paddle to engage neutral." They could add code in the ecu to select gear afterwards based on engine load compared to speed. Pretty sure my other cars stand alone offers it for autos. Would be really cool if someone could figure a way out though.

Yeah, I'd really like to see someone crack the TCM and offer some tuning for the tranny. I know SSP has the valve body upgrades, but I'm also interested in the software tuning that might be done.

[Jyn]

What would be the benefit of having a quick-shift to N as opposed to just letting off the brake and coasting that way? Does the engine braking slow the car down that much (no sarcasm)?

[kavanagh]

Originally Posted by Jyn

What would be the benefit of having a quick-shift to N as opposed to just letting off the brake and coasting that way? Does the engine braking slow the car down that much (no sarcasm)?

Yeah, the engine braking does kick in pretty significantly.


For example, if you get on the gas in first and really speed up quickly, you can't just push in the clutch and coast along at whatever top speed you achieved in first gear, you have to upshift to match the speed, and it's not a very smooth transition. I can't really think of a scenario where this comes into play, but I do seem to recall doing it all the time in my manuals, and I actually do it on my motorcycle too.


Vrooooom --> cooooast

[MVJ1975]

Engine braking is very significant in the lower gears (1-2). I generally just downshift to slow down and only apply the brakes in 1st.

[kavanagh]

I agree @MVJ1975, I should have clarified that I would like to be able to hit neutral directly after accelerating in order to coast - not during braking or slowing.


I love the downshift action on this and probably waste more gas with the autoblip downshift than with actual acceleration. I'll do it just to hear it.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by kavanagh

I should have clarified that I would like to be able to hit neutral directly after accelerating in order to coast - not during braking or slowing.

Yep that's what I wanted as well. For example, in manual mode, coming up to a stop light I would want to shift say from 3rd to neutral to emulate pushing the clutch in to coast to the light.

I realize I can do it with the shift, but I don't use the shift in manual mode, so don't ever really think about it.

In the stop light scenario, you really have to almost be stopped to go into first gear manually. I typically 'cheat' and just let the AT transition from 2nd to 1st at the stall point.

[m.wood0213]

Tight, fast, and active curvaceous roads is where the twins come alive and the auto loves them more than the sticks do. Stick to what this car was made for. You. No one else. It was made for your driving pleasure and nothing else.