Imhotep Evil

There were hardly any (mature) alternatives for production vehicles. I mean an automatic would have been too much for an M car.
Besides till the 1980s there hardly alternatives for race cars either.

But with the arrival and then improvement of the semi-automatic, there's no rational need for manuals on special cars.

It's only got to do with the "stick boy" = "only real driver" mentality born in the 1890s.

Tycoon

You're a long time BMW fan, right? Were you saying this for manuals before SMG arrived? No, i'm sure you weren't. Why putting it down now?

My father, who drives a BMW for almost 30 years said: With BMW's manual, i'll never go for any other tranny. You know their history, he knows the car and everything about it. And he never said such thing.

Don't get me wrong, i'm just a little bit surprised with what you're saying. If there wasn't that masterpiece, F1 inspired V10, you'd never say such thing for BMW's manuals, i'm 100% sure.

Of course, since the engines of today are thousand light years ahead of those before.

Lol!

Bruce

What the hell does that mean?

Are you saying that prefering manual transmissions means I have a mentality stuck within the 1980's?

Imhotep Evil

Not you necesarily, but the ones who belive so, particularily NA, are forcing companies like BMW M and Ferrari to compromise their engineering.

Tycoon

Well, i agree with that and i can't believe that those forced BMW to do a complete MISTAKE!

bmer

Nah, Grandpa, you're stuck in the last decade of the 19th century. You must be one of those racerboys who burned rubber with one of these:
Just spare us from telling how you riced your ride, ok? And don't talk about manuals because they were propably popular when you were young, that would be about the same decade when the wheel was invented...
j/k, sorry...

Tycoon

Lol, a little bit of fun doesn't hurt!

Good one, bmer!

Imhotep Evil

Manuals were for a long time the best BMW or anyone else had to offer. Even
BMW's manuals were special, different from the poor man's manual.

As for the semi automatic + V10 it goes back to before I was BMW fan.

To the 1992 Williams Renault FW14B F1 car.
I still remember qualification on board footage of N. Mansell touching those, intriguing back then, paddles all on the symphony of the magnificent Renault V10 engine.
And then the race, the way that it could destroy the opposition and cut corners with unseen clinical precision (also thanks to the Active Suspension coupled with TC and ABS, on slicks).
And ofcourse again that magnificent V10 witch had more power than the V12s of Honda and Ferrari (not to mention it was smaller, lighter and less thirsty) so efficiently exploitated by the semi-automatic.
I had dreams about that car, sometimes I still do.

That draw me close to F1. I didn't knew a thing about BMW, but I knew about Williams and Renault.

So nothing to do with BMW, just my F1 freak-ness.




So should we compromise engines ?!

Imhotep Evil

That's why the M5.
Semi-automatic + V10 + fancy suspensions.

Perfect F1 formula.

Tycoon

Absolutely no! Read my post on the revious page about today's M5 manual version for NA!