The other day I had the privilege of driving a Gallardo round an airfield. It was awesome. While I know all the raw figures, I never expected it to feel that fast or have that much grip, and that glorious V10 bark would have been enough to get me excited even if it wasn’t that good. Here’s the obligatory ‘but..’ though, it was equipped with an E-Gear transmission, Lamborghini’s single clutch automated-manual.
A great car, but where's the manual?
Perhaps Jeremy Clarkson has indoctrinated me, but I’ve never been keen on the idea of a ‘flappy paddle’ gearbox, but I approached it with an open mind, after all do you really care when your hurtling toward 150mph on an airfield? Answer; yes. Of course it didn’t ruin the experience, but it certainly made me happier to return to my diesel saloon with its proper gearbox. Why I didn’t like it? To start with I managed to start indicating and turn the wipers on in two separate shift attempts, but of course given some practice I’m sure I’d overcome my lack of co-ordination. Not really a problem then, so what about that jerkiness Mr Clarkson used to moan about? Well it’s there. A lot. However I think a large part of this is a) the fact it’s shifting so fast and b) you’re not in control of the clutch, so you don’t anticipate the change in forward motion like you would, thus even the jerkiness I could live with.
The real problem with me isn’t any mechanical flaw with the system; it’s nothing that can be explained with shift times, or sensations of jerkiness. It’s all about your interaction with the car. There’s something that’s just so monumentally satisfying about flying that needle toward the redline, bashing the clutch down, slamming that stick into the next gear letting the clutch up again, and doing it all again. That’s it. That’s the best way I can explain it. I’ll admit a DSG transmission is not only much faster than me, but faster than even the best shifter could shift, but I couldn’t care less.
Oh here it is, here's hoping it's not an afterthought like the one fitted to the e60
Thing is, if I were to win the lottery tomorrow, this is going to severely affect my choice of car. Can I have my Aventador in manual please? No. How about an XF-R? No. Car manufacturers with performance models are increasingly not bothering fitting a manual gearbox, because they sell so few off them. So clearly I am in a minority with my opinion.
Is the death of the manual upon us then? Thankfully there are a few manufacturers that seem to understand the appeal of that manual shift, even if that appeal doesn’t appeal to so many customers. Porsche for one, have vowed not to make a GT3 with a semi-auto, while the lesser models have just received an all-new 7 speed manual, no doubting their commitment then. BMW M cars may be drifting away from high revving engines, but if anything it seems there commitment to manual gearboxes is returning, M5’s with such equipment have been seen testing, let’s hope they make it work, unlike the e60 US only manual, which was unable to put its power down properly. If all else fails there’s always that used market, and I’ve got my eye on a lovely white LP560-4 manual, just need to get those lucky numbers..
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