Joey, I wasn't talking about control over your gear changes, and rather the response and precision offered by a direct mechanical connection between the engine and the wheels. This is really only matched by a dct or similar transmission, and while I agree the gear changes are better/quicker and it's definitely a quicker way around a racetrack, I don't think losing all your benefits of a conventional manual is worth it, at least not for me, unless the car only serves a purpose as a track car and you never have to deal with low speed driving, or at least when you do, it's not an important situation. Sort of like the tiny clutch pecal in wrc cars. Sure, it might be a pain to use it, but they don't use it when the car is actually doing what it's built for, but, it's still there when they need it. If my car was only for driving around town, or only for grip track driving, an automatic slushbox or dct is great, but I do both, and I drift, and sometimes I get stuck, or sometimes I'm in a traffic jam, and doing something that completely doesn't bother me, like operating a clutch and shift lever, is completely and entirely worth having something that works well in all situations.
Also, getting rid of manual transmissions would pretty much cut out any new cars from entering the sport of drifting, unless you were to swap in a manual, but that's a more personal view.
. I practiced heel and toe 15 years ago, when my old man trained me to drive - he said it's very important skill set, and all my cars are manual, go figure.
Good to see another manual enthusiast.
