I know this is a controversial opinion, and largely unpopular with certain people, but the advantage using a shifter has with some cars is starting to get rather annoying as somebody who's using a DS4.
With most street cars, the shifter has a massive advantage at the start of the race - people using a shifter routinely go from near the back of the pack to near the front of the pack (assuming roughly 10-12 people in the race). Last week the 2 street cars the shifter didn't make that much difference during the race (as was demonstrated by
@SAMHAIN85 getting all 3 pole positions in D1 without a shifter), the advantage was at the start.
However, this week - the FERRARI 512 BB 1976 has
at least .5-.8 seconds (
PER LAP) if not more of speed to be gained simply by using the shifter to accelerate. This advantage isn't even on the start, it's throughout the lap anytime you have to change gears.
I'm not trying to implement a no shifter policy, or say that street cars not be allowed - I'm just voicing an opinion, that these races don't feel very stock anymore - there is an ever growing class of drivers in D1 who've purchased shifters just to stay competitive - and as somebody who doesn't have a rig at this point in time - there's no option for me to suddenly buy a shifter to keep up.
Also, please don't respond with a "I could miss a shift debate" - if the upside of using the shifter didn't largely outweigh the downsides you wouldn't use it (again general statement here) - as I would wager a guess that
most people who are using shifters are using it only for up-shifts but then going back to auto-clutch/paddles for downshifting.
Here's an example of the massive advantage at the start of the race. You're watching from Sam's perspective, who gets a relatively good launch - keep an eye on SRC who starts directly behind Sam (again this isn't meant to blame anyone it's just an example), SRC's initial launch is about the same as Sam, but the secondary launch is WAY faster as his car doesn't bog down while it shifts - he immediately goes from last to I think 5th before we even make it to the first corner. That's a +6 on the race before turn 1 (being brutally honest here) purely because SRC owns a shifter.
It's gotten to the point where I'll probably know exactly what combo I'm voting off before I even race on Sunday and it's usually going to be the car that requires a shifter to be competitive.
Did you know they sponsor a NASCAR driver? Can’t remember which series or when but I came across it while searching for logos to DL.
