2011 Mustang Gt: 6-Speed Manual vs 6-Speed Automatic Performance Difference
 

I'm going to have to get an AUTOMATIC when the time finally comes to get back in a new five-liter, my knees have got too bad to shift gears in the stop and go traffic in my area, any ideas on difference in performance between the 6-speed manual vs the 6-speed automatic? Zero to sixty & 1/4 mile? Thanks.

The automatic means never having to say, "I missed a shift.":stirpot::stirpot::devil::devil:

Don't the automatics usually have longer gears?

Usually the automatics are a better tranny and so you would be able to get to higher speeds faster. I know a lot of people that drag race and they have automatics

I remember the Chally SRT8 reviews, and the automatic pulled the best and most consistent times.
But I'd still have to have a stick in a performance car.

i believe both 0-60 and 1/4 mile time should be comparable. The only thing with the auto is you won't be able to order the track pack or brembo package. But the aftermarket will surely provide

My friend's 2010 SS is an automatic which is rated at 400HP, 26 HP less than the 6 speed and it gets comparable times in the quarter. So i think that the Mustang should be about the same, if not i say just a tenth or two quicker on the 6 speed. If i'm getting one, it will have a stick for sure. These things are so much easier to shift than lets say...my 4 speed '69 top-loader.

Did he run it before or after you hit him in the head for buying a camaro? :jester:

You mean buy it.....No actually he owns quite a few performance machines if you ask me. Two of them are an '87 Notch with a 347 strocker, and the other is a Ford GT, so i CANNOT say anything, he is mostly a Ford guy, but he enjoys all kinds of fast toys on 4 wheels. Did i mention he also owns a modified '82 or something Mini, a M3 Bimmer and a 69 Zamaro has i like to call it.
He specifically bought a lift to put his two beloved Camaros one on top of each other. Go figure.... If i were to do the same set up with my '69 and '88, well lets just say that SWMBO wouldn't be too happy getting the '69 in the middle of the living room since i've got no overhead room to do the same.:)

:rofl:

All you had to say was Ford GT :drool:

Does he plan on getting an '11? And what does do for a living lol

I'm a lucky dude, i got to drive all of his cars more than once ( of course him sitting next to me :o)and believe me, that Ford GT is something else. What a rush of adrenalin this thing is.
He owns a big ventilation-heating company that does pretty good around here. No he hasn't told me anything about getting an '11 GT. He has something else on his mind and he won't let me know. But it's for sure running on 4 wheels...:)

Man, thats gotta be awesome having a friend like that!

I have no comment on the question...But, LEO_06GT...Your aviator freaked me out man...I thought I was in some kind of Movie...That guy pointing to me moving his finger....Freaky...

All these days he's had that avatar and I never even noticed the finger moving till you said it.

I guess I'm not very observant.

hahaha I never noticed it either gary!

Its from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers...a scifi classic.

Dave

In the 1960's an automatic vs manual was almost a full second slower in the 1/4 th mile. Now the automatic is at the most .2 of a second slower than the manual and some automatic's are equal.

The only real performance difference between the stick and auto stems from the efficiency difference between a clutch and a torque converter. An automatic uses a little more power, so less gets to the wheels. A generally accepted drivetrain loss from the engine to the wheels is about 15% loss for the manual and about 20% loss for the automatic. So, with 412 flywheel hp, a 2011 GT stick should make about 350 rwhp and a 2011 GT automatic should make about 330 rwhp.

1/4 mile trap speed will likely be around 2 mph better with the manual transmission with that 20 rwhp difference over the automatic. However, I suspect that the actual ET's will be quite similar - maybe just 1-2 tenths different at the very most - as the automatic looks like it'll have a much steeper 1st gear to counter the steeper rear end gears available with the manuals.

Want to make an automatic launch hard? Replace the torque converter with an aftermarket stall converter. You'll launch hard like a stick shift car, never miss a shift, and revs will never drop below the higher stall speed rating at WOT (much like powershifting a manual).

Modern autos run faster than manuals. See the CTS-V. The Camaro is a different story as the engine in the auto version is different. L99 in the Auto versus the LS3 in the manual.

Modern autos are vastly improved, but this has not shown to be true for the Ford Mustang automatics yet. The old 3 and 4 speed automatics were notoriously slower than their stick shift counterparts. Even the 2005-9 5-speed automatics in the Mustang GT's were about 2 tenths and 2 mph slower in the 1/4 mile than their 5-speed manual counterparts. That didn't stop me from getting an automatic in my 07 GT, though, as I knew what to modify to make the automatic perform better than a manual.

long story short, you'll be just fine getting an auto :nice:

I believe that there is a differance in the rear end gear, the auto are supposed to have a 3:15 standard while the manuals get the old 3:31 rear gear. I think the gear ratios were also slightly differant. I have no doubt that the manual would be the quicker car with a great driver, but when you probably can cover the 1/4 mile in just over 13s in the auto, I really would not worry about the differance.

I have owned 9 mustangs post 1986 and 8 of them have been manuals. I have a friend who owns a stock '06 auto and that car is plenty fast. The new automatics really get with the program when accelerating. For cornering, however, Ford does not yet offer an auto that can be held in gear easily like the tiptronic, dsg, etc. That would greatly enhance the appeal of an auto for me, as I am not a drag strip kinda guy, but I do like the convenience of the automatic for most of the driving I have to do. Not a big fan of paddle shifters, but I have always enjoyed manually selecting the gears with the stick in my wife's audi. Also cool how it rev matches. :nice:

Me too :) 4k stall.

Nice! 4,800 rpm stall in mine (supercharged). It was 3,800 rpm's when naturally aspirated.

The real answer is that Ford, in its continuing march into the 21st century, should offer a 7 speed DCT and blow away both the stick and slushbox.

I'm thinking CVT. Why shift at all? Just mash it to the floor and keep the revs coming!

I don't understand why either. DCT/DSG transmissions are the future.

I agree that they are the future, but you must understand that the transmission design was complete months ago, ie. the past. Unless you have a flux capacitor, you can't make the future the past. :lol2:

Maybe they will introduce one with an SE, in the next few years, which will then trickle down to the standard models in the following years.

I actually do have a flux capacitor:

http://jalopnik.com/5135842/ford-pow...he-little-ones

Ford has the technology in Europe.

LOL LOL LOL

I'm so glad that someone knew I was kidding about the CVT......

While it sounds great, a Mustang is not a small economy car like the focus. Compared to the mustang, the focus does not have a high torque engine. And Ford is delivering on their promise for 6 speeds by 2013. Just wait for the SE, which will probably have it, and then the following year, the GT will probably pick it up. If its a deal breaker for you, wait and hope it gets added. Its not a deal breaker for me, and I will be buying soon.

is the auto a manu-matic? if so, does the throttle blip on downshift?

They have thier place but what a bore. Maybe if I was actually in the business of racing for a living I might be more excited about them.

However I'm sure the days of having a clutch pedal and a shifter that moves in more than one plane are numbered, just as well I suppose, since people will be bothered to much while surfing the web instead of actually driving.

2014 I bet.

I think the dual clutch tranny is the future as well. Who doesn't want their cake and eat it too?
I would love the option of driving it like a normal automatic around town and selecting gears in the corners with the flick of a thumb, F1 style.

Regardless of performance, I personally would choose manual just for the "experience" and driving involvement that autos or semi-autos can't match. My grandfather drove stick until he was in his late 60s, didn't buy his first auto until 1997. I intend to see if I can match him in that regard. :)

I've had a number of sticks and automatics over the years and when I drove the 2010 Gt stick, it was

definitely fun. But it does get hard to eat an ice cream cone, talk on the phone, fiddle with the radio,

watch the GPS, look out for other cars?, and shift at the same time, although I know it gets done. LOL

manumatic?
 

Not seen any reference -
or hints in any pictures...
So seems very unlikely.
[ Odd ]
Perhaps Job 2?
- Ray
Ford [ L-M ] offered this in my Y2K Lincoln LS.......

Ford has never had a good automatic transmission. BMW has a great one in their 335i.

That's your opinion.

I believe the 5R55S (the Mustang automatic from 05-10) to be a very nice transmission. It is robust, has great gear spacing, and shifts awesome if you have a tuner bump line pressure and shift points. Through in a high rpm stall converter and hang on tight for some hard launches at the dragstrip.

Agreed I found the 5R55S to be a very nice tranny as well. I felt the only thing it needed was a manual shift capability and 6 speed and it would be perfect.

For those of you who feel a DCT type tranny can't live behind high torque or high horsepower cars only have to look at what BMW with its DCT or Porsche with its PDK to see that is not the case at all.

The DCT in the M3 lives all the way to its redline of 8400rpm all the while making 414hp, I do realize its torque that kills trannies but the DCT in the M3 is robust as hell. Not to mention PDK in a 997.2 Turbo that makes 500hp and 480 ft/lbs (516 in overboost) of tq.

It can be done but its gonna cost and with these cars already getting expensive..we will see.

Dave

Well, guess what! You'll be glad to know the new boxes in the 2011 V6 and V8 Mustangs are Ford's copies of the ZF. Maybe not as good as the ZF, but for what you're getting, and relative to GM's, it will certainly be a winner.

Too much power/torque means higher costs won't be desirable for this demographic.

Being based off the ZF is would have this option built in. But reading the 19 page article posted in the other thread it appears you won't have that feature. I could be mistaken, though.

If it is the same ZF gearbox that Ford put in the Jaguar XF, then that gear box is considered one of the best sorted autos in the industry, with many reviewers questioning the need for a dual clutch style. And yes, it has manual control (paddles). :nice:

Checked the article in 5.0 posted elsewhere on this site, and it looks like the transmission is a 6r80 that has been used in expeditions and navigators. Don't know if this is a ZF box or not.

Do you have any links on the transmission being based off the ZF? I haven't seen this yet. Thanks.

No, just talk from those who work at Ford.

Looking at the gear-set/ratios of Mustang's automatic, it is the same/identical to that of the ZF's. This is further indication that what I've read is true.


Ford six speed auto(found in 2011 Mustang)
1st 4.17
2nd 2.34
3rd 1.52
4th 1.14
5th 0.87
6th 0.69



ZF six speed auto
1st (6-Speed automatic) 4.17
2nd (6-Speed automatic) 2.34
3rd (6-Speed automatic) 1.52
4th (6-Speed automatic) 1.14
5th (6-Speed automatic) 0.87
6th (6-Speed automatic) 0.69