If you go to Racingflix.com and download the video that takes place in Japan where the manuals v.s. the "automatics" they have the smg M3 loosing to the manual. Same is true of the Ferrari. What's the deal, do they have an agenda? Are the drivers just not familar with smg? You guys that track your SMG M3's and others, what's your impressions, opinions?:confused:

I've seen the video, it's awesome. The fact that the sequential cars lost in the video means nothing. Most drivers will be quicker in an SMG car because of increased confidence and simplicty. With a good driver, however, SMG cars will have no advantage.

Originally posted by nsk223
I've seen the video, it's awesome. The fact that the sequential cars lost in the video means nothing. Most drivers will be quicker in an SMG car because of increased confidence and simplicty. With a good driver, however, SMG cars will have no advantage.

Yup.

I think that if you watch the video the driver of the smg does not shift at all. He left it in auto mode. That would only have given him A5 to use. If he would have used S6 he should have been faster. No matter how good A5 is it cannot take the place of a person who can use downshifting to brake and hold gears either with S6 or a normal manual. I would bet that if they had used S6 it would have reversed the order of finishing. Yes a good driver will take away most of the advantage of the SMG but for the same reason that F1 uses it, it is more consistant and lets the driver focus on other things.

Originally posted by kstore
I think that if you watch the video the driver of the smg does not shift at all. He left it in auto mode. That would only have given him A5 to use. If he would have used S6 he should have been faster. No matter how good A5 is it cannot take the place of a person who can use downshifting to brake and hold gears either with S6 or a normal manual. I would bet that if they had used S6 it would have reversed the order of finishing. Yes a good driver will take away most of the advantage of the SMG but for the same reason that F1 uses it, it is more consistant and lets the driver focus on other things.
I 2nd that!!

on the track, I know I could be more focus on other stuffs when approaching a turn and take my hands off the wheel to shift....

they should not be faster but smg lets you consentrate on other things which should make you drive better

Hmmm according to the newest motortrend the 0 to 60 times for 3L Z4 the SMG was noticable slower... which made me think which is the better tranny choice??? I mean they should be excatly the same since the SMG is still a manual tranny but with ultra quick and miss free shifts. Can you launch SMG trannys like you can with manuals???? I'd love to get and SMG tranny though.

Assuming driver skill doesn't come into it, the manual M3 will be faster. For one lap.

But I'd bet the SMG car would be WAY faster over 100.

I think the Z4, as with BMW cars other than the M3, uses a different SMG system that has only two modes and shifts slower. That's why SMG is only a $1200 option in non M3s'. For 0-60 times, correct me if I'm wrong but, I don't think there's any"launch control" on the SMGs that are not in the M3.

Originally posted by nsk223
I've seen the video, it's awesome. The fact that the sequential cars lost in the video means nothing. Most drivers will be quicker in an SMG car because of increased confidence and simplicty. With a good driver, however, SMG cars will have no advantage.
That's not entirely true.

Originally posted by LandShark
I 2nd that!!

on the track, I know I could be more focus on other stuffs when approaching a turn and take my hands off the wheel to shift....

stuffs? :biglaughb

A simple answer to the faster around a track question is the fact that that the M3 CSL only comes in SMG II form.

For the serious track enthusiast with a high strung engine like the S54 or like all the engines Ferrari designs a sequential system is the only choice.

Brian