re manual shift bigots eliot lanmola engr washington edu eliot writes in article c liw cax news rich bnr ca peon w o email eric youngblood writes in article qn lo c s vela acs oakland edu mje pookie pass wayne edu michael j edelman writes the big disadvantage of automatics is the hp they consume that never gets to the wheels in this respect they are at a disadvantage to a manual only when the torque converter is not locked up there are autos out there with converter lock up in nd rd and th gears w r t performance converter lockup is purely irrelevant the lockup only occurs at light throttle settings and serves only to improve mpg mind you a converter clutch does a lovely job of improving mpg but the additional mechanical advantage of the converter gives you more acceleration vs locked converter clutch than its inherent losses take away michael t chaffee mchaffee ux cso uiuc edu email mchaffee sumter cso uiuc edu nextmail sig under construction excuse
