I was at my softball game last night and I noticed a 2k Merlot SE 5 speed in the parking lot. After the games, we were drinking a couple of brewskis after another devestating loss and just about everyone else was gone, but the car was still there. I approached the only other team in the lot and asked who's 5 speed Max it was. I spoke to the owner and asked him how he liked the manual tranny because I was waiting for one before I got tired of waiting and got an auto. Naturally, the guy loved the 5 speed and asked me if I wanted to take a drive. I thought he meant he would drive and I siad sure. To make a short story less long, he gave me the keys and drove with me.

I have driven manuals for >20 years, but as everyone probably knows the Max 5 speed is a little touchy, so I could not really drive it that hard (also had a couple of brews beforehand). I still got a good feel for the great pickup in the low end. He also had a front sway bar or strut and I could definitely feel a difference. Much stiffer in the front when taking exit ramps.

One other thing I noticed made me think about all the posts here where people state they beat a car with more HP or were beaten by a car with less HP. While driving the car at hiway speeds (60 mph)in 5th gear, I downshifted to 4th and floored it. It took a second for me to realize that I should be down at least one gear lower. What I am trying to say is what others have said before. If you catch someone who doesn't race a lot, the advantage can be great enough to beat another car even if you are greatly underpowered. A second quicker reaction time and you will get an insurmountable jump on the other car. Even if the other driver is a good driver, if he doesn't realize you want to race and hesitates until you make your move, he will most likely never catch up because that extra time means his speed will lag your speed by about one second. This can mean several car lengths by the time you shut down.

There are a lot of people who call b.s. on someone when they say their auto beat a 5 speed, but I think the faster shifting and consistency of the auto may take away most of the advantage of a 5 speed, at least when racing from around 50 on up. Has anyone with a 5 speed raced an auto on the hiway (stock vs. stock) when both drivers got equal starts? How much was the margin of victory.

Sorry to ramble and I hope it came out like I meant it, not just some rambling no-brainer nonsense.

 

i don't let my own sis drive my max not to mention a total stranger....wtf is this guy thinking? he prob had toooooo much to drink as well.

 

IMO, sticks help greatly for acceleration. I have read somewhere that a PERFECTLY tuned auto will beat a stick. But I think that is assuming that the number of gears are the same and the ratios are the same as well. But unless you do a rebuild, the stick is better prepared for abuse. From my experiences, the 5th gear of a stick has a different ratio than the 4th gear of an auto. I think the 4th gear may be a 1:1, but I'm not sure. I don't know what the stick is. Since the stick has a higher ratio in the final gear, it "should" have an advantage from the acceleration standpoint. But that should also limit it's top end speed, and make it slightly less efficient at very high speeds.

 

do you even drive a Maxima? Why is your name cal SE man?

BTW, you are right........

 

Dood ... hehe just because his name is SE Man doesn't mean he has to have a Max (which he does GLE), nor does he Mean SE Maxima!

He's SEman

U figure that one out!

 

One day I was in my girl's appt complex and this black dude who has a 96 that I have seen checking out my ride before in the complex pulled up to me. He was nice as hell he has a 96 SE, it was his 2nd max cuz he had a 95 that was totaled. All he had was a CAI and a lot of hyper white bulbs all the way around and a BIG system. Any way we chatted about my muffler and springs and his CAI. He offered to let me drive his ride and i let him drive mine too. The really wierd part was the clutch on his 96SE it engaged a lot more near the floor and I was MUCH firmer. A little more grabby, it engaged over a very short travle. My GXE 96 has a much softer clutch, engagues higher up and isn't as grabby. Whats up with this which is normal?

 

Don't know what you mean by a perfectly tuned automatic. But it will not beat a properly driven 5-spd. HP loss in an auto is substantially greater period. Most of the auto's I've seen stock are putting down 170-175 or so. Mine dyno'd at 190 to the wheels.

You have to be in the right gear but that is part of driving a 5spd. If I'm racing on the highway, I'll always drop to at least 3rd if I'm not over 80 - there isn't as much in 4th at lower speeds/rpms.

Most 5spd drivers will tell you that the biggest difference between driving a 5spd and an auto is the ability to get to where the most power is very fast. A good 5spd driver can put rpms in the sweetest spot on the power band under any variety of circumstances very quickly. However, it does require the driver to think ahead sometimes. An auto on the other hand will go down to the lower gear (it has fewer)when you punch it but you have no control of where rpms are going because it always goes to the same gear - usually d2.

Ex: I down shift at 80 to third - my rpms are going to be around 5k+ IMMEDIATELY. What happens in an auto - it drops into a lower gear but still has to build.

If the question is, whether an auto guy can punch it and get a good enough lead before the 5spd guy downshifts - I'd say no. If an auto pulls next to me and I'm in 5th AND I have any inclination the guy wants to race - and he punches it, I can be in 3rd very very quick (usually I would have downshifted). He might get a very brief lead but the 5spd will walk the auto in upper 3rd and into 4th. Of course - much bigger chance that I'll miss the shift!

 

He played the game before ours and was drinking for a while, so I guess he didn't want to risk racing the car and getting pulled with a few beers in him.