Originally Posted by Roadk9

I was bored so I decided to see what was being said in this thread. OMG, it's a crap slinging contest. So after it all died down, I haven't figured out why someone who is dedicated to driving manual trans cars and thinks that is really driving would want to comment on a thread about how folks are driving their automatics.

That makes no sense to me.....

Originally Posted by Mustang Freak

I put my daily driver in 'D' then drive.

Originally Posted by mustang09girl

I like to drive mine in "sport" mode. I have the Roush AB exhaust and it just makes the exhaust sound that much better! And, the driving experience super FUN! Love it! I went with an automatic in my '15 because my '09 is a manual. When I feel like "shifting" I will drive the '09. However, I don't drive the '09 nearly as much now, because the '15 is just that awesome :-) Just today, I got a thumbs up from a young guy as I drove by him.

Originally Posted by ohlang

For the longest time I avoided using my paddle shifters because from 0-60 or 1/4 mile, it would never beat what Sport Automatic can do. Main reason being that the factory rev limiter is set to 7000 and I couldn't make it shift right at 7000 like in Sport Automatic mode without risk of bouncing off the rev limiter, so I was always short of maximizing each gear. Plus shifting at WOT is not precise, as the engine can rev a few hundred RPM's before the shift actually occurs, further increasing the chance of bouncing off the rev limiter.

I never explored or considered some of the options in my customer tune such as raising the rev limiter or the option to harden your shifts. I have since raised the rev limiter to 7500 and raised all shifts to +25 value. Now I'm always hitting at least 7000 between shifts and my shifts are hard.

I understand the advantages of manual control in a car but I still think electronically control manual shifting is better overall as it allows you to react quicker and make far less mistakes. Having said that, I just wanted to hear from some of the automatic owners on how they drive and/or race their cars. I'll talk about some of the things I like to do, what I've learned, and my driving habits given my cars setup below.

As mentioned above, I'm using my paddles in manual mode a lot more and really enjoying it, especially when I want to just take off. I rev my engine higher in each gear between shifts and down shift quite often when I want to accelerate or pass cars quick or not. Overall strategy for normal driving is accelerate while at 2500RPM or above. Just to feel the pull when taking off while moving, I'll downshift to the lowest safe gear (the car automatically prevents you from damaging your car when downshifting) and WOT it as the RPM jumps for a violent launch. Downshifting from second to first can be tricky depending on what speed you're currently at. On one occasion, I took notice of what speed I'm at at the end of first gear and I saw ~40mph. When I'm at 20mph for example, it takes longer to downshift from second to first so I have to work on my timing to make it a smooth transition but there almost seems to be hesitation or more difficulty making the transition (first gear is a beast). In automatic mode I want to say it will never downshift to first gear from a higher gear once you reach a certain speed even if the car can. My rear axle ratio is 3.55 btw.

Originally Posted by fourdegrees11

What a ridiculous over the top argument. for a DD that sees regular heavy traffic auto is really the only way to go. My GT is not my DD, and when I drive her it's because I really want to drive her, so a manual is the only right option (for me). To each their own.