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i have a great story that goes with this

my mate came over one day to show me his vz clubsport, and it was also the first time he saw the gemini (still in the process of building it at the time) and hes sitting in the gemini and he says, theres only one problem, it doesn't have a clutch pedal. to that i responded that an auto is a better option for drag racing.

he disagreed and i said i bet you over 10 runs i'd never miss a gear and he would atleast once ... blah blah

so when we went for a drive in his clubsport and he pulls up on a quiet back road to do a standing start run for me, so off he goes, bogs down off the line, then bursts into wheel spin then he changes into second, all good, keep going, shifts into 3rd and got a whole lot of shifter gate nothingness! to which he says "oh that never happens" and i replied "i rest my case"

and i think thats enough info to rest my case

ps. yeah autos are boring, i like boring in my traffic gridlock on a day to day basis and i like boring when i am towing my race car to the track

Yeah, towing is much easier with an auto

immortality wrote:Yeah, towing is much easier with an auto

I don't even have a tow bar, I binned my to save weight. I use my bothers car to tow lol

Holden202T wrote:i have a great story that goes with this

my mate came over one day to show me his vz clubsport, and it was also the first time he saw the gemini (still in the process of building it at the time) and hes sitting in the gemini and he says, theres only one problem, it doesn't have a clutch pedal. to that i responded that an auto is a better option for drag racing.

he disagreed and i said i bet you over 10 runs i'd never miss a gear and he would atleast once ... blah blah

so when we went for a drive in his clubsport and he pulls up on a quiet back road to do a standing start run for me, so off he goes, bogs down off the line, then bursts into wheel spin then he changes into second, all good, keep going, shifts into 3rd and got a whole lot of shifter gate nothingness! to which he says "oh that never happens" and i replied "i rest my case"

and i think thats enough info to rest my case

ps. yeah autos are boring, i like boring in my traffic gridlock on a day to day basis and i like boring when i am towing my race car to the track

trick is to learn to use the clutch correctly and good throttle control, only time I ever bog down when I accelerate too hard in low rpm and hit the flat spot in the tune (stops the engine dead). otherwise, I get away great with a bit of drivetrain preload and good control. I could never get as good take off in my old auto box as I do in my T5

we even wore a trench the width of the pucks on the clutch plate 4-6mm deep into the flywheel in no time while staging at the drags

vlad01 wrote:trick is to learn to use the clutch correctly and good throttle control, only time I ever bog down when I accelerate too hard in low rpm and hit the flat spot in the tune (stops the engine dead). otherwise, I get away great with a bit of drivetrain preload and good control. I could never get as good take off in my old auto box as I do in my T5

I have no doubt you can get a manual to work fine for drag racing but I still maintain you will always get more consistent results with an auto.

As for your comment of auto never taking off as good, you should try a "suitable stall converter" I think you would be surprised!!

delcowizzid wrote:we even wore a trench the width of the pucks on the clutch plate 4-6mm deep into the flywheel in no time while staging at the drags

how? i had a clutch failure last year after 100k of abusive use and some bad riding as the clutch was a bitch to operate (incorrectly adjusted pivot)

and when i took it out it wasn't even worn in from what I could tell. I thought for sure it was going to be trenched like yours but nothing.

I guess its what friction material you use.

From what I have seen in the VW scene with blokes running 9 sec cars with 600hp+ not many have had the problems as described by you, in fact most are running standard vw boxes with internal work done by one and only one guy. I blew my stock vw box with less than 50hp so just goes to show with the right work and parts any manual can excel, even the clutch. just needs to be the right setup.

thats being said there are few blokes who run a vw type 3 auto which once the TC is beefed up they hold well in drag racing but not idea as they are only 3 speed and tall gears and one off parts and rare as well.

Anyway isn't drag racing pretty pointless these days with the 1/4 being reduced to 1/8 ?

Im a big fan of manual (all my cars are manual), but I would go auto for the drags. Listen to the VB back on page 45 if you havnt, it shifts pretty fast!

Also, not all drags are 1/8. Here in Adelaide they re-opened at 1/8 and have now gone back to 1/4. Im a circuit guy but I understand chasing power and times at the drags when your challenge is more build than race.

1/8 vs 1/4 is much of a muchness, sure you go alot faster but I'm in top gear just before the finish over the 1/8 so for the 1/4,it's just steering!!

I don't think you can compare the VW motor with a large displacement turbocharged 6 cylinder motor, the average torque output from the V6 is going to be much higher.
Besides, the main benefit of the auto is being able to have a torque converter which gives you a smooth transition from a stall state with maximum torque multiplication (2-3x the basic engine torque figure) all the way up to peak power when the torque drops off, only to shift into the next gear for more torque multiplication goodness. you never have to fall in the hole beneath peak torque with a well setup auto.