i guess u're talking about drag racing here, but for autocrossing it's best if u keep it at 1st gear and then keep it there until u get up to speed. the problem with this is that now u cant downshift when you want to..but as for drag racing shifting might be better if u want to squeeze out more rpms.

 

But that's only assuming the gear ratio on the auto is the same as the manual, for example, a 400 hp sports car with a 6 spd manual and a 6 spd auto, auto should be a little bit faster, and the same sports car with a 6 spd manual but a 4 spd auto, it should be significantly slower as far as acceleration goes, right?

 

The extra gear in the manual Lancer won't even play a part since you usually stay within the first three gears on a quarter mile run anyway. It all depends on the ratio of the first two or three gears, I would think.

 

If you pay attention to how your car sounds and feels right before it shifts from gear to gear in an auto you can make it shift from gear to gear a little quicker by letting off the gas about 1/3 or 1/2 way and then pushing it back down again.

This works for me to shift into 2nd and 3rd quicker than the box does it itself, plus it keeps you in the powerband because you force it to shift while its at optimal levels.

If you just pay attention to how it sounds you can usually let off the gas and hit it again within 1 second or so of when the box would shift and it should shift it up when you re-hit the gas. 1 second can mean a lot even though it sounds like nothining when you are using an A/T!

On a side note, you could always get one of these

 

Yeah, have your foot on the brake and press the gas pedal and rev it then release the brake and mash on the throttle. This is what my friend did on his 96 Eclipse GST when he was dragging his car at SEARS POINT in Sonoma, CA (its called something else now but I forgot). His car (automatic) ran 13.4's in a small 16g turbo and was faster than my GSX in the freeway and I had a BIG 16g.

 

i dont know, i smoke a MT lancer with my AT. it was a fair quarter mile run also. yes the kid i was racing know how to shift his gear!!!! with the AT if you know how to accelerate, you can win. you dont just slam the gas at the launch. you will lose all your power already

 

If you're talking about drag racing, you can go from 1 to 2 to 3 if you learn the best places to shift. My experiences with autos is that if you don't have any idea when to shift in the 1/4 mile, the car will do a better job choosing that you do (my best 1/4 in my Trans Am was letting it shift itself). I don't recommend launching in an auto Lancer, though.

If you're asking about autocrossing, just stick it in 2 and leave it be, unless you start hitting the rev limiter, then use 3. And for road course racing, leaving it in 3 is probably the best (that's what we do with my dad's Shelby Mustang at Willow Springs). But be careful running an auto on a road course for too long. I forgot why, though.

 

damn! i actually 'lol' @ that. i have a friend who goes from -4 in his auto 92 accord..never really understood why... i was never really interested in auto trannys.