[DeTomaso] Manual Gear Boxes - Quote from a R&T article

[Stephen]

"If modern performance automobiles are analogues to modern high-performance
fighter aircraft, where speed and agility are critical measures, there will
be no pace for the manual gearbox in serious performance cars in the future.
However, if performance cars are akin to Lightnings, Corsairs and the like,
then there is a natural place for manuals.  As performance art."

 

"It comes down to purpose. Sports cars are designed to make people happy.
Fighter planes are designed to make people dead. The latter are built to do
a job, and the efficiency with which they accomplish that job is unrelated
to operator entertainment. With street cars, numbers don't paint the full
picture. Every trip up a mountain or run to the store isn't a full-tilt
qualifier. The satisfying, tactile ha! of a manual downshift can't be
measured. And if you think speed through automation always equals a

good time, ask an airline captain how thrilling it is to drone around on
550-mph autopilot."

 

Somehow this spoke to me.

 

Stephen Nelson

 

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    "If modern performance automobiles are analogues to modern
   high-performance fighter aircraft, where speed and agility are critical
   measures, there will be no pace for the manual gearbox in serious
   performance cars in the future.  However, if performance cars are akin
   to Lightnings, Corsairs and the like, then there is a natural place for
   manuals.  As performance art."


   "It comes down to purpose. Sports cars are designed to make people
   happy. Fighter planes are designed to make people dead. The latter are
   built to do a job, and the efficiency with which they accomplish that
   job is unrelated to operator entertainment. With street cars, numbers
   don't paint the full picture. Every trip up a mountain or run to the
   store isn't a full-tilt qualifier. The satisfying, tactile ha! of a
   manual downshift can't be measured. And if you think speed through
   automation always equals a

   good time, ask an airline captain how thrilling it is to drone around
   on 550-mph autopilot."


   Somehow this spoke to me.


   Stephen Nelson