Driving automatic in Manual Mode Better?
 

hey bros, first time poster long time lurker. Just recently picked up a used 06 RX8 automatic GT. Was floored by the test drive. It was like driving a rocket ship! pretty awesome and pretty intense. I'm doing all the right things maintenance-wise but I had a question:

I know everyone hates the automatic RX8 drivers, BUT I really dig driving in manual mode. In fact, for the first few weeks I didn't even know how to drive it in regular auto! haha. I kept messing with the knob shifter trying to find it, until I finally did! haha I know, pretty bad. But basically what I'm curious about is:

1. does driving in manual mode on the automatic, better for the engine than driving in strictly auto? Does it increase the life of the engine?

2. does it yield better gas mileage?

3. does it give you more power than in auto mode?/as much power as a true manual rx8?

4. if I drive it in manual only mode am I still considered a sissy auto owner? hahha.

thanks for any answers, and sorry in advance for the noobish nature of my ?'s Im sure they have been asked many times. InB4 "learn how to use the search bar!"

you sound like a troll but I just think you are too lazy to research.
1. we all said redline a day keeps the carbon away. driving in manual mode has nothing to do with engine life. you still can keep the RPM down if you want to but manual mode does give you ability to keep the rpm up.
2. again, it has nothing to do with what mode you are in. its the way you drive. I dont think lead footing in auto mode will give you better MPG than driving like a granny in manual mode.
3. no. your 06 auto has 210hp where manual version has 232hp. different redline and tune.
4. that would depend on you. you can either dont give a fuck or you can consider its a bit pussy driving an auto. I drive a manual car and an automatic car depending if I am just going to work and buy grocery or hitting the curves and pretend I am a pro driver doing all the heel and toe.

no my question was def legit. no troll. I did do research, but there's not a lot of talk about the manual mode in the auto.

Yeah I definitely noticed that the rpm is higher. I've heard talk that the auto's have more engine trouble than the manuals....thus running an auto in manual mode would logically seem to be alleviate some of this????

same with performance. I've noticed manual mode has noticeably more acceleration. its not just a placebo...there's def more torque.

Older autos were troublesome. And, your logic is flawed. It had nothing to do with the transmission.

It feels more powerful because of the red line. No difference, otherwise

Auto = 4 speed
Manual = 6 speed

What's faster? Get a manual if you want to go fast.

06 has 6 speed auto and 210hp.

Oh...never knew that. lol

1. Nobody knows
2. No
3. No
4. Yes

Ken

1. Yes
2. No
3. No
4. Yes (by most of the people here)

1. Yes, cuz' you rev to higher rpm where the power of the rotary is. In auto mode, it keeps you around 3k or 4k. The peak torque is around 5k, fyi.
2. In auto mode yes, not in manual mode. Really depends on how you drive and your average rpm.
3. More than auto mode, cuz' you can rev much higher at anytime. No point to compare to manual...you know why.
4. You are what you are, not what you drive. lol

Not true. I have an '07 auto, and if I floor it, it won't upshift until it reaches the 7500 rpm redline. Push down 2/3 of the way, and it will always fly past 5k and shift at closer to 6k.

As far as the auto goes, I find myself leaving it in auto mode more often then not, as it definitely shifts a whole lot more then if I were to take over the shifting chores. At 75 mph, pushing to about half throttle, the auto will downshift to fourth, something I probably wouldn't consider while putting it in manual mode. Fifth perhaps, but not down to fourth. This auto shifts a whole lot more then I would be shifting under normal driving. Also, there's a turn onto a wide, seldom used back street I use going to work. It's sort of my redline a day run. I'll make the turn, stomp on the gas, the auto will downshift to second, run to the redline, shift to third, run to the redline where I'll then back off before I start to run out of room before the intersection. When I back off, the trans will not upshift immediately like most autos. I'll wait for about 3-4 seconds as if it's anticipating that I just may want to stomp on it again. I've never experienced such an intuitive auto. The Mazda engineers really thought through the programming of this auto. I find it hard to improve on how they set it up. That's not to mean that I never use the paddle shifters, as they are a lot of fun, but I use them much less then I thought I would when I first got the car.

This is the first sports car I've ever owned with an auto. Besides all of those I've owned in the past, my current other two, the Miata and the '59 TR3, both have manuals. I originally wanted an RX-8 with a manual, but this one with the auto came around, and I was pleasantly surprised when I drove it, so I bought it.

I dont really see the difference in using the manual mode vs driving the manual car. I know the auto is less HP, but unless your commute includes a 120 mph stretch of nurburgring I think the difference is pretty negligible.

Actually, handling is much better when you use manual mode on a AT 8. No joke. That's one fact most don't know.

1. Not all members brag, or even care about the difference between manual/auto.
2. Many users here are young and immature.
3. Up until the part that I quoted as bold, I was kind of agreeing with you.

I'm also on bodybuilding forums. No joke. :evil_laug

manuals are just more fun and more involving. nobody said manuals are better, its all personal opinion. I just like to work with the gearbox and clutch and have fun with heel & toe. I also have an auto BMW just to get grocery and go to work. nothing wrong with it and I like it.

not saying I'm some kind of bad ass bodybuilder, just that I use the forums on bb.com and I think this site should emulate that site. I mean being an rx8 owner is just like being a fitness freak...it makes you a minority. And as members of a minority subculture we should share info and stick together, not be hardcore phaggots. Thats all I'm saying! hhaha. Its an Rx8 bros....not a ferrari...lets be real here...haha.

I still dont understand what you saying.

so you are saying Ferraris are all autos?
I dont get what you saying here. just drive the damn car and be happy about it. no one is judging you only yourself.

Actually, as of 2012, all Ferraris will come equipped only with paddle shifters. The clutch pedal is history. Ferrari click-clack manual transmissions, RIP | Car Blogs | Car Magazine Online

Not exactly an auto (with torque converter) , but clutch work and heel-and-toe have been relegated to the trash bin.

The fact of the matter is that the six speed auto in the RX-8 is an excellent transmission. If you haven't driven one, find an RX-8 with one and give it a go, both in auto and manual mode. Any criticism you had for it previously might just vanish. The only way it could have been made better would have been to make it like the transmission in the Ferraris. It can't be that expensive to do, they had them available in the Toyota MR2's.

I know. its sad. I still prefer a proper manual.:worship:

Enjoy the car man! My last a car was 350Z auto and went up to the Dragon and put that sucker in manuel mode had just as much fun as a Manuel. I almost bought a GT with a Auto but got a better deal on my Sport 6 speed RX-8.

P.S. The Dragon's tail at Deal's Gap is this

I track a 07 6spd auto, and this guy has the best review of the trans that I've heard.

I think it's next to impossible for a person to feel the load better than the car, and I'm too distracted finding the tires limits while I drive.

I just let it shift normally for any driving, and I get best mileage easing around town; not keeping high revs.

When you feel like it just go floor board it a lot to put a heat and rpm load on it to clean carbon.

I autocrossed and drove like I stole a 73 RX3 with 4 speed manual, and this auto is much more fun (I never miss or scratch a syncho either).

With an auto, your left foot will atrophy.

Ahhh... no problem. Adjust your training to compensate for the idle left foot, and you'll be fine. :)

Ken

let me preface by saying that I have never driven a manualmatic car versus a manual car of the same make and model, but I have driven plenty of manual cars, auto cars, and manualmatic cars. The manualmatic cars in manual mode do not feel any where near the same as a manual car. There is no arguement that a manualmatic car in manual mode will most likely shift smoother and faster than a manual car, because of the human factor...but it is the human factor that makes driving fun

do you want to drive a car? or have the car drive you? for me, the less electro-driver-assist-gadget-doodads there is on a car the better. If you flip your car going around a bend because you went in too hot, then too bad for you, learn to drive. Each new generation of cars with its "safety features" that dictates how a driver should drive makes driving less and less fun for me...the thing I hate most about my rx8, besides the fake pieces that do nothing for the car, is the audio controls and cruise controls on the steering wheel...the steering wheel is for steering, not for fumbling around with the audio controls

All from the faq, theres no need for any debate here. It is what it is.

Also from Riwwp and teamrx8..

Why are we so hard / harsh on newbies?

You may notice that many new owners join this forum and promptly create a thread that generates lots of negative feedback from the people already here, the newbie ends up getting butthurt about it and claims it's a "mean forum" or "we are all dicks", etc... Not every newbie of course, and just the fact that you are reading this thread means you probably won't subject yourself to that. But why do we do it?

Here is a fantastic post from TeamRX8 on why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
This involves several issues. The first being that you can't see beyond your own immediate needs and wants. This is not Wiki8Club. It took many of us years and years of involvement and reading to amass the knowledge.

Imagine somebody coming here daily, in fact it is often multiple people daily, asking if not demanding the same information over and over again. We are not your on demand servants. We are people just like you with other priorities and demands in our lives, limited time, our own personal interests for being here, etc. Why should we spend that time catering to people that come here seeking instant gratification?

That leaves us with two options. We can either ignore you completely or we can tell that the info is here if you bother to make the effort. However, over several years of telling people this you eventually get fed up dealing with the continuous stream of people seeking instant gratification yet you still would rather point them in the right direction so you just bark at them to get the point across. Imagine someone coming to your house, going to your living room, pulling their pants down, and taking a dump right there on the carpet just because they didn't know any better. You might be annoyed and yet also understanding because they didn't know any better. Now imagine this being a different person doing this every day. It wouldn't be long before you just as soon they go away and never come back.

Almost every day there is some clueless dolt posting a tech or troubleshooting question in the DiY area, despite there being a sticky thread at the top saying to only post threads there with DIY instructions and subsequent discussion of same. The real issue is that people think they are free to just come here and do as they damn well please and there's no need for etiquette, rules, structure, or organization unless it serves their own personal interest.

Well guess what? We're not here to cater to new uninformed people that come in here trampling all over everything regardless if they're ignorant, just don't care, or whatever. This is like any social community and so if you make waves you better expect to deal with it. If you don't like it then get the f' out because the established community could care less about some newbie whining about not getting what they want immediately. We do care about you clogging up the search engine with useless threads on already established subjects, which there is a dedicated thread on this very subject in this same forum area no less. It took me 10 minutes to explain this. Now imagine multiple people daily requiring it, so you make a Sticky thread at the top that says "read this first" and yet every single new person just like yourself thinks they are beyond trying to fit in properly so that this forum operates smoothly for all of us.

You probably don't read Japanese, but the line in my sig is a well known Japanese proverb that reads "the nail that sticks out gets hammered". You made yourself that nail.

Most of the people that are being the hammer for those nails use either the New Posts feature (https://www.rx8club.com/search.php?do=getnew) or the Live! feature (RX8 Live!) (both are in your top bar under the banner), and see posts with issues pretty quickly. We do not use these features with the express intention of flaming and bashing. We use them so that when someone posts up an actual issue that needs actual help, we can react quickly to their request.

We do not do this because we are paid to do it, we do it because we believe in our community (at one level or another). We want to improve it and make it better, so as we have time during our normal lives we look for issues we can help with, we look for new ideas, new projects, etc... But, in the process, we see all the garbage that people clutter the forum with because they feel themselves above reading what has already been posted, and that garbage gets to us. So thank you for reading, and your help is certainly appreciated in guiding people this way too.