I love my manual on my evo and I also love my dd 335 flappy paddle, they both great in their on league.

 

Technically, while I avoided the SST for technology cost reasons, I can't really be a true constituent of the thread. I was never an SST hater. I do love a manual, my left foot keeps itself out of trouble and doing something that it's trained to. But I actually would have liked the SST had the tech costs not been potentially lopsided to the fun/price equation. I liked the paddle shifter in my lil bro's first C6 vette.

 

Automated gear type transmissions are not new tech, they have been around since the 80's when Porsche started experimenting with them on race cars.

 

That's my point. SST twin clutches are now the new non-experiemental implementation. When computers came out, IBM 'experimented' for decades, only 30 or so years before they thought they would build a personal version, and only 20-25 years after that before an average person could buy one that they could use and live with for 10 years; it's still a lame tech, this whole "PC" and "information technology" thing (I make my living doing it, I can tell you diff between art and science of tech). To the early adopters we call "Bleeding edge". I'll wait til all the experiements stop and the mainstream implementation of SST dual clutches become common place. THAT is a good time to throw money at what is effectively a commodity, based on the "science of technology", which is more a sociological and economic exercise than nuts and bolts.

 

Honestly, all that needs to happen is the price of the transmission to come down.

Once it's in the ~5k range, there is no reason price should be a factor imo. As of a year ago, the transmission was 9k, I'm hoping with all of these cars with them, they will be able to get the price down via supply / demand.

If it were $5k I wouldn't care about trashing the hell out of it. That's only about $1000-1500 more than a regular 5-speed, which is well worth it.

 

Its funny this is comming from a tech-guru...
With that mentality, if everybody would think a same like that, we would still rockin' the carrige with two horse , just to be safe.

 

I have to agree with Robevo. The myriad of uses and functions for a home PC are astronomical. That wasn't really an evolution, it was a birth and does not correlate here at all.

The evolution of technology in automotive applications is different and more simple. First, we aren't working with 70s technology. Second, other seemingly complex (at one time) automotive technologies such as variable valve timing and direct injection have been brewing for years, but once embraced became mainstream very quickly.

Even if the price of SST comes down or it becomes economically servicable, it will not be fully embraced. From driving one, there is no question to me that it will easily return faster lap times, at the cost of reduced feel. And that feel is the SST's biggest adversary, as evidenced in pages like this one: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sav...25741200803024

I like that someone said "At least Mitsu gives us a choice." The day might come where they won't.

 

I disagree with this part. There will always be people that like the feel of a 5-speed, it is pretty cool to rev match going into a 90 degree corner from a high speed straight, and to practice being easy on a clutch, etc. However, like all old technologies it will fade and eventually go away completely. It might be 5-15 years from now, but I feel you'll hardly see any manual transmissions in high performance sports cars. It's a natural evolution at this point.

Just need to learn to use that left foot for braking instead of clutching

 

Righto. When the price point comes down to 1/2 of the current level, that shows the curve which indicates increased availability of the know-how and probability that the curve will continue what the curve is doing -- coming down. That leads the cost analysis of the $5K purchase being a cheaper repair over the intial timeframe, a few years post the purchase. It's an economics lesson more than a engineering lesson. I wondered then why an econ series was required course work

 

I love a 5 speed... but no cruising gear kills it for me. Also the city life is making me hate shifting through 3 or 4 gears every 1-2 minutes... and then there is traffic ...

My next ride is definately a Ralliart. Or if i can get an awesome deal on an Evo MR then that... In Canada an Evo MR is over 50k...

 

The cruising gear lack you can live with in the 5MT, especially if you do what most do and open up the exhaust. Louder but really faster.

MT in stop-and-go traffic in the GSR -- SUCKS. No nice things to say about that.

I have pondered the ralliart, second "mini Evo" for the wife, but haven't had funds to get into two payments right now without her working. I think the SST will be well served in the lower powered car to get some of the design flaws identified (and fixed) without it being so frequent as what you'll find with 300+ or so HP in a slightly modified Evo.

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BTW, isn't your moniker really "Catherine Obvious"?

 

Oh this is where I have 40 years of direct observation and another 30 through education, family and curriculum based. The home PC does have definite limits. It's a calculator and TV set; nothing really beyond that until you throw a browser at it, then it has a flexible rendering feature. Back to a TV, but interactive. "Visicalc" started this fad, and it's still ssdd -- online banking.

The car has a 50 year head start but lacks the precision engineering improvements that have come with computers. The layered OSI model revolutionized things, as did the design for a "kernel". Those advances were well after basic car designs (axles -- two, engine, transmission, steering in the front). The computer got those WAY afterwards. The car's advances lingered. Mainly because of the 70's economic impact that laid off engineers in auto engineering impacting a full generation of terrible designs. So the two are effectively neck and neck. Hell, I either live or die by both of these fields. Way too common and watch what's happening.

IMO, the auto engineering field sux as to potential and achievements. I don't know if having engineers not fired in the 70's and 80's would have helped, but we really should be on either frictionless (hover) transport contact or electronically guided and sped control systems by now. Oh well, we have gotten faster cars with less weight. I'm not complaining about underachieving. It's muscle, not brains. Which is still red meat to me.

 

On the bright side, we no longer have a reverse pedal and the wiper stalk isn't a throttle lever.

 

Maybe I should go get that MR. Bah

 

Hush, that Jorts!