Audi / EuroMonkeys: Thoughts on an Audi A3 Kombi as a bike hauler?
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I am personally a control freak and prefer to shift myself. I want to drive a car, not operate it. I would prefer others would too as it makes it harder for them to text or apply makeup when driving. Yeah autos are faster these days but who gives a shit. A half second faster to 60 ain't gonna get you through that traffic jam any quicker. And no matter how good an auto gets, it will never be able to look ahead and predict what gear you need to be in.
Never understood RR drivers who take pride in driving around with a man bent over with wings. Is he expecting something from behind?
If I had that feature on my Di2 equipped e-fat bike I could finally make it through the tech sections on the tow path.
Yeah, but have you driven an auto with adaptive cruise control? Holy shit, there is no going back. If you are going to talk about a traffic jam, well the adaptive cruise just puts you in a good "haha, F-all these people that have to hit the brakes, accelerator and gears!" mood, you are all calm and thinking, hell, when the car goes, it goes, until then, nothing to get mad about. Rather than "F-this, holding this high pressure clutch in constantly...". It also lets me look left and right a lot more, to see everyone holding their phones and shit. I think that if the car is exciting enough, it'll make up for the lack of rowing through gears, aka having big enough brakes, a good enough suspension and smart enough trans, etc. On some cars, a manual is enough of a weight advantage to matter and they don't have a lot else going for them, like the BRZ, which has neither power, nor traction, nor braking. It's more of a balance of these things and a great auto on it would vastly overshadow all the other parts IMO. There have also been some autos so bad they should have never been used as long as they were, like the Subaru 4EAT. Should have never ever been able to order a WRX or Forester with this horrible transmission, but lots of people did. If you did, you deserved all the clunky 4K at 60mph ridiculousness that it encompassed.
I wouldn't mind rowing through a nice 6-spd gearbox, but there are less cars I'd consider doing that in these days.
But it's not because we are stuck in 1985, its because autos, including DCTs, have become that much better.
soooo...
a 2007 911 gt3 RS (complete with awesome wing, centerlock wheels and factory roll cage) has appeared for sale in Lima.
the price is within my range (í´d have to sell the C63 though), and specially cheap compared to the insane prices people are paying for 997 gt3 RS in the US or Europe... which makes me wonder...
how hard it is to import a 2007 GT3 RS (euro spec) into the US??? the price is so good, I might buy it, use it for some time, and then take it to the US/europe and profit....
engine maintenance probably needed...
And this will kill the killer deal.
If you have to ask and don’t have your own black market import avenue available, probably not for you. This is a race car too, not a daily driver. Maybe a regular GT3 or GTS, but an e63 is far more practical and liveble. Walk away from the edge.
i know. my daily driver is an SUV. the roads are beyond terrible in Peru.
I entertained the thought of a GT3/RS as a weekend toy (which my c63 coupe is) / track car (which my 63 isnt); and a nice indulgence if the price was right, and even a sensible decision if the depreciation would be lower than that of my c63...
BUT, I just came back from checking out the car... and the car isnt a RS as advertised, (which was what made the killer deal).
its actually a regular GT3 with 19k miles and lots of RS stuff on it, like the roll cage, the carbon bucket seats, the wing, and the RS stickers....
you´d be surprised.
modern high-performance automatics are way, waaaaaaaaay better than even a very good driver at picking/predicting gears, let alone faster...
Yep, was watching Randy Pobst comment on how the ZL1 10spd was downshifting lightning fast just due to centripetal force in a turn, independent of forward speed, in anticipation of launching out of the exit. Modern "standard" autos now shift as fast as DCTs and are faster and more efficient than manuals, although they do still weigh a bit more (but even that is coming down).
On the other hand, I just picked up this because....F-autos. (2SS 1LE) I want to be engaged in the driving. I sorely missed rowing through gears, even though the ZF-8spd was a great transmission.
E-bikes are also faster than regular ones.
Mind you, we only got a bit of snow at the end of November and in April things go back to normal. With the dry periods we get in the winter these days and periods of above freezing and rain, it’s not that far out anymore. Snow melts much more rapidly here than down south due to the daylight change, and I have a set of winter tires and wheels for it, those do far more than awd, there are actually roads here, unlike Juneau.
Really want a manual...
really hate a manual in traffic.
will probably get an auto
really hate a manual in traffic.
will probably get an auto
If you do this, the only way is to get one with active cruise control. That is the best feature about an auto IMO.
And eventually you’ll end up in the end still hating automatic transmissions like me.
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I would love some sort of tru(er) ai driving. I have radar cruise and LDW in the rav4 and had it in the infiniti before that. I don't know that either will stop and go 100% though. Being able to get on the pike and surf my phone while the car does all the work would be TITE.
One of my problems (I have many) is that my commute is a mixture of backroads that are tight af and then highways and then city traffic/city driving. I mean real drivers' roads followed by just the worst boston has to offer. So I want something that's fun to drive and then I need something that's totally menial to drive. An auto-stick/dct would be the way to go, but anything with four rings on the front is probably out of the question.
One of my problems (I have many) is that my commute is a mixture of backroads that are tight af and then highways and then city traffic/city driving. I mean real drivers' roads followed by just the worst boston has to offer. So I want something that's fun to drive and then I need something that's totally menial to drive. An auto-stick/dct would be the way to go, but anything with four rings on the front is probably out of the question.
I hate being in a traffic therefore manual doesn't make it any worse.
My next car will have a manual.
I drive a manual in crappy Seattle traffic. I don't really have a problem with it. The GTI has a pretty darn torquey motor with a wide power band, that helps a lot. I honestly think a high strung motor than begs you to thrash it is the most fun you can have on a back road with a manual transmission, but that sucks in traffic. Modern turbo or v-8 motors that are happy at any RPM are a great compromise for urban driving.
Just stay in the 2nd gear in traffic if your engine has the pull (you want a new clutch anyway). My S80T6's winter transmission mode was staying in the 3rd and above. The car ate 2 transmissions before making it to 220k miles.
The only time I ever slip my clutch is from a start. I've got 140K miles on it with no signs of giving up yet.