Grim... wrote:
kalmar wrote:
Torque converters aren't, by themselves, the reason for "slowness" of autos.
Slowness is perhaps the wrong word, but aren't they a cause of sluggishness?
The cause of sluggishness is more due to the other reasons mentioned: fewer ratios with a big gap between them, additional weight carried, and in older models the gear-switching logic is vacuum and oil pressure controlled, which isn't always going to shift at the perfect point.
Remember there's also measures taken to make the shift smooth, and therefore slow. For racing, the box can be modified to change more snappily, and you'll probably find that the latest big cars with autos have a fair bit of computer intelligence to adjust parameters like this, under control of the "sport" button or even the rate of change of the accelerator pedal.
I haven't compared the 0-60 times of modern auto cars against their manual counterparts, but I'd be surprised if there was a big difference these days.
All that said though, you will still notice it while driving because essentially, a downshift will happen *after* you've chosen to accelerate (causing an annoying lag), rather than you setting up the right gear before you need it, such as going into a tight corner.