I think most of ya'll missing the point, the man's question was should he use overdrive in a drag race/quarter-mile. the answer was quite a dully noted, no. as to givin him **** cause he has an automatic and saying... if you were serious about racing, you would have gotten a manual!.... kiss my *** frankly. just because you have an automatic doesn't mean you can't be the avid weekend warrior... and look at the car that you are driving.. it's not exactly a car to be "Racing" the quarter mile in.. maybe in a rally style race.. the protege is a compact sudan, that packs a good punch for the buck. if you wanted to really race and have fast quarter times, you'd save the money you spent on the mods you did on your protege and went out and bought something with a meaty engine, not 100 to 125 hp car... simple as that. the protege is perfect for a weekend warrior, it loves cornering, it loves pulling out of turns, it's simply fun to drive.. not to mention the shock factor it can give when you're driving around in a sedan.. a four cylinder... and not a coupe

 

Ferrari uses a sequential manual for gearing. Just an automatic clutch, supposed to be going away next year if the proposed rule changes go.

Mach 1 - I know how serious you Civic racers get. When you can pull a sub 10 in that thing give us a call. WTF is wrong with you? Have you ever seen how many 6-speed Camaro's there are out at the tracks?

 

Well your right on the must park but there are a lot of 4 door sedans that race, such as the Volkswagon Jetta. Subaru WRX. and Mitshubishi lancer. The Protege is known as a "sports" Compact sedan. Sure theres not many Protege racers out there but I love that When your racing around and all you see is Hondas its kinda nice to have something diffrent that'll do just as good as a honda

 

I think it's important to point out to any n00bs following this thread that the power-delivery problems of automatic transmissions (torque converter loss and inferior gearing) matter MUCH less when you have a massively torquey engine like a high-powered V-8 drag car. In a vehicle with very little torque (that's us) a manual will ALWAYS spank the same car with an automatic.

 

Do these guys all drive Mustangs?

This does NOT describe the V-8 drag racers I've met. I hung out with a bunch of V-8 junkies all through college and have spent a LOT of time at drag strips, and just about all of them recognize that a decent automatic is just as fast as a manual in a V-8 drag car, but they're easier to drive consistently and are MUCH easier on your drivetrain.

If your anti-automatic friends drive Mustangs, their attitude has little to do with automatics in general and more to do with the power-sucking POS excuse for an auto tranny installed in the Fox3 and SN95 Mustang. Talk to some GM or Mopar racers and they will tell you different.

 

I wouldn't describe Sudan as compact. It's one of the largest countries in Africa; I think that only Algeria is larger.

I crack myself up.

 

all autos are more EXPENSIVE then any manual why do you think they always say "for $800 you can have it in an automatic" and why do you think the sports automatic is more EXPENSIVE then the short shifter manual??

 

Two most popular transmissions for drag racing: Powerglide and Lenco. What do they have in common? They are both automatics. They are mostly set up as semi-auto. Usally with a manual valve body (powerglide). Why are they so popular? consistancy. I have yet to see anybody that can shift a manual faster than a automatic. And for the torqe converter. Well it has it's advantages : You can preload the driveline at the line for better 60 foot times, It asorbs more of the shock when doing a hi-rpm launch so you dont drop an axle as easy as you would with a clutch dump and a few more for which I won't even get into because the aftermarket for the auto is non-exsistant in our case.

 

Are we talking about drag cars, rally cars or road cars?
Because I think we started out talking about PROTEGES.
In a MAZDA PROTEGE, the manual transmission is quicker than the automatic, agreed?
We can argue all week about which tranny is better for racing.

 

I dont have a Civic. What in the hell are you talking about? Oh, thats right, you dont have a clue.

For a better explanation of why automatics are better for drag racing (yes, this is what we were talking about) see all the great information posted recently.

And I will clarify once again, because you seem a little slow....automatics are better for drag racing once you reach a certain horsepower level.

Your 6 speed camaro freinds havent reached that level yet.

 

Mach..I think it was "0_csh_drv_cvc" with the 2002 Civic EX w/ 200hp tailights that he was referring to...

I guess the main points in this thread are:

1) Proteges w/ manuals are faster than Proteges w/autos
2) Serious drag racers use autos

How am I doing here?

 

Also, it's worth mentioning that the last time I checked, the unofficial fastest time for a stock LS1 Camaro was held by a car with, yup, the 4-speed automatic. The Camaros' 6-speed manual is nice on the street because you can run really short rear-end gears and still get decent highway mileage, but it's not any faster than the automatic in a straight line and it's MUCH easier to break the car's weak-*** stock rear end with the 6-speed.

 

A lenco is actually, a manual with a clutch, but you don't need to use the clutch to shift. Basically what you do is floor it, and yank back a lever for each gear. Say a 4 speed, you've got 4 levers, you just pull them back as fast as you possibly can when you're ready to shift.


Motor Trend July 1995.
The I think Michigan state Highway patrol tested the 6speed and auto Z-28 and found that the auo was just as fast or slightly faster in acceleration times and only slightly worse in fuel economy.

 

There is no one transmission type that will be the best in every situation. Every car is different, however, I belive once you start losing control of the car due to increased horspower and getting that power to hook up, like front end pulling wheels off the ground at launch, and fishtailing between shifts, it might be time for an automatic.

 

hmm... shifting from 1/4 mile(number 1) then going to 2 and then at DRIVE. Is there a chance that this can mess up your transmission or something. Becuz I do the 1-to-2-to-Drive thing too. It gives some extra boost. Ive beaten hella cars like that. Even maunals. LOL. But my car has been acting up and im not sure. I think i need a tune up or something. Someone Help me out.