Pretty-cool car-video that showed up on my YouTube recommended list – I’ve seen car-videos from that YouTube-channel b/f and they are often pretty-cool – it’s a drag-race b/w a Lucid-EV; Tesla-Plad; a Bugatti; and then against a Ducati motorcycle:
Interesting video. Of those four vehicles, I'd take the Ducati. 210 HP on a bike is sick and I'd love to try that out.
Wouldn't want the Bugatti because I think automatic trans on a monster like that is stupid unless you're a girl. EVs are of zero interest to me no matter how fast they are.
Now that said, if I really did have my choice, obviously I would take the $4,000,000 Bugatti, sell it, pay the 30 grand or whatever for the Ducati, and pocket the rest. But until that day comes, I'll stick with my Mazda and my Harley.
“… I think automatic trans on a monster like that is stupid unless you're a girl …”
AFAIK modern-high-performance-automatics are considerably faster than stick-shift – back-in-the-day it wasn’t a true-sports-car if it wasn’t a stick; but today’s high-performance-automatics are def not the automatics of 20 years ago.
^ I don't see the cool factor of a stick, as someone who grew up in Brooklyn, driving a Corvette in my local neighbor hood you never get out of 3rd gear and it's a royal pain in the ass to constantly be shifting from block to block, at least on my old Harley I could run in 2nd or 3rd gear without having to shift back and forth if you're skilled enough on a bike.
BTW I learned to drive on a 1962 Ford Galaxy with a column shift not cool at all.
I learned to drive in a column shift '49 Chevy. My first automatic was a '57 Dodge with a push button automatic. I went back to manual in 2000 with a 4.0 Ford Ranger pickup. That was followed by Manual Ford Mustang Gt's in 2011 and 2015. In 2018 I went back to 10 speed auto in my Mustang GT. Atlanta traffic drove me to it but I also believe that it is faster than the manual. The 7th generation Mustang is coming this summer with a 25HP increase to 485. I don't need any more power but I will get the 10 speed auto again.
Yeah, my first "car" was a '76 GMC van with a 3-speed on the column. It was my dad's work truck, and when he got a new one he gave it to me. It was beat to shit and had high mileage, but it ran fucking great. Only thing was every once in a while the shift handle would get stuck in between 1st and 2nd. You'd have to coast to the side, kill the engine, and under the hood there was a linkage that you could grab with two fingers, give it a good pull, and it would snap back into place.
After that almost every vehicle I ever purchased had a manual trans. The only two that were automatic were cars I "inherited". My mom had a 92 (or 93?) Volvo 850. It was about 15 years old and only had 20,000 miles. Nearly mint condition. Garage kept, all maintenance done by the Volvo dealer, never even a fender bender. She just wanted something new, and the trade-in offer from the dealer was insulting, so I took it off her hands for a few thousand. It was my very first car that had power windows instead of roll-downs, and power locks plus heated seats and mirrors were a bonus. The auto trans was awkward to me, but the "luxury" was fantastic.
I drove that car until it had about 100,000 miles. Still ran like a top. Then a drunk ploughed through a red light at about 50 mph, smashed into the driver side front wheel, broke the axle, and sent me spinning into a telephone pole. The car was totaled but I think it saved my life. It was built like a fucking tank.
So my wife and I went out shopping for a new car "for me". End result, SHE got a new car and I just started driving her old Honda, also an automatic.
I have to laugh every time I hear about an attempted auto theft or car-jacking when the crook abandons the heist because he can't drive stick. I also feel like manual trans just gives you more control over the car. How many times we hear about a tragedy because the "accelerator got stuck". Plus I've always found that while driving automatic I'm more easily distracted by texting or whatever. Less so when I'm constantly using all four limbs to drive the car.
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Wouldn't want the Bugatti because I think automatic trans on a monster like that is stupid unless you're a girl. EVs are of zero interest to me no matter how fast they are.
Now that said, if I really did have my choice, obviously I would take the $4,000,000 Bugatti, sell it, pay the 30 grand or whatever for the Ducati, and pocket the rest. But until that day comes, I'll stick with my Mazda and my Harley.
AFAIK modern-high-performance-automatics are considerably faster than stick-shift – back-in-the-day it wasn’t a true-sports-car if it wasn’t a stick; but today’s high-performance-automatics are def not the automatics of 20 years ago.
The difference I think is closer to a full-second or a bit-more - it's computerized-technology vs a human-being
BTW I learned to drive on a 1962 Ford Galaxy with a column shift not cool at all.
After that almost every vehicle I ever purchased had a manual trans. The only two that were automatic were cars I "inherited". My mom had a 92 (or 93?) Volvo 850. It was about 15 years old and only had 20,000 miles. Nearly mint condition. Garage kept, all maintenance done by the Volvo dealer, never even a fender bender. She just wanted something new, and the trade-in offer from the dealer was insulting, so I took it off her hands for a few thousand. It was my very first car that had power windows instead of roll-downs, and power locks plus heated seats and mirrors were a bonus. The auto trans was awkward to me, but the "luxury" was fantastic.
I drove that car until it had about 100,000 miles. Still ran like a top. Then a drunk ploughed through a red light at about 50 mph, smashed into the driver side front wheel, broke the axle, and sent me spinning into a telephone pole. The car was totaled but I think it saved my life. It was built like a fucking tank.
So my wife and I went out shopping for a new car "for me". End result, SHE got a new car and I just started driving her old Honda, also an automatic.
I have to laugh every time I hear about an attempted auto theft or car-jacking when the crook abandons the heist because he can't drive stick. I also feel like manual trans just gives you more control over the car. How many times we hear about a tragedy because the "accelerator got stuck". Plus I've always found that while driving automatic I'm more easily distracted by texting or whatever. Less so when I'm constantly using all four limbs to drive the car.