It kills me that it's dying, even porsche is phasing it out and ferrari dropped it a few years ago.
Honestly who the hell cares if paddles shave off a fraction of a second, it's not like most drivers are actually fast enough for it to matter.
Having rented a Turbo 997 when it just came out years ago, I can tell you it's more about the car than the driver. I don't care if I was an ultra proficient shifter in a manual, there's no way I could have shifted fast enough to keep up with that engine and transmission. When floored, it would go through 3 gears in less than a few seconds. I would be at 90mph in under 6-7 seconds. Without an automatic (tiptronic in this case), I would have hit the redline and missed the shift every time going from 1-2 and 2-3. And with all the added gears now (8 gears in one of the newest Mercs), how are you going to shift that much? And with traffic getting worse, the clutch becomes a bane for everyday driving.
My Boxster is an automatic even though manual was an option. Why? Because a good automatic is just that--automatic. This transmission downshifts automatically when I dive into a corner and then holds it until redline as I accelerate out. It anticipates spirited driving and automatically adjusts. Every time I thought about even shifting manually (which I can do in the tiptronic), the car was already there. I'm sure the Ferrari must be like that on steroids.
But I can vouch that there can be horrible automatics as well. Don't get me started on the Audi R8 I drove--tossed them back the keys and told them I wasn't interested anymore even though the car was sexy as hell.
I mean, look at that hotness!!!
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(Fisker Karma Sunset Concept)
God, that would have been such an awesome car. One of my site members has a Signature Edition Karma. The Fisker concept was better that Telsa's imo--Telsa's useless mileage limitations make it a second car, not a primary. And the Karma handled so well too! I was waiting for some professional drifter to get their hands on it and the
960 ft-lbs of torque in the rear tires. That coupled with the 50/50 weight balance would have made a phenomenally different drift car.