Manual or Automatic transmission..which do you prefer?

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

That is interesting, things must have changed, I hadn't thought of that.

I know back in my drag racing days, one of the advantages of putting a 'glide in my Mopar (other than the tranny brake ) was that it only took about 48 hp to run it, and the 727 took about a 100.

I am sure torque converter technology has helped a lot with the gas mileage and the efficiency situation as well. The early "lock up" converters were a real problem source, but I haven't heard anything about them in years now.

I think a big part of the efficiency with modern auto transmissions comes from having electric servos do the shifting instead of fluid pressure. At least that’s the main difference between something like a TH700R4 and a 4L60E. They’re both GM 4 speeds but one is electronic controlled and the other still requires fluid pressure to sense when to shift and provide the power to shift.