Ferrari Mailing List: Re: LA Times: Dan Neil on heel-and-toe shifting and the Nissan 370Z

[Rick Lindsay (rolindsay]

You know, a lot of this thread was written after F.G. commented (paraphrasing) 
that some car "...would be better if it had a manual gearbox."  I then said 
that modern automatic gear selection systems are superior to manual gearboxes - 
if your standard of excellence is absolute performance.  I went on to say that 
if your standard of ENJOYMENT is playing with the shifter, listening to the 
exhaust note and heel-n-toe down-shifting, then by all means, go for a system 
with a manual gear selector in the cockpit.  (After all, if it was good enough 
for drivers in 1930, its good enough for drivers today!)  :-P  

The only point I am trying to make is that we can argue until the end of days 
and we still won't agree because the real difference is in the shifting system, 
its the definition of the word "better".

rick