Pontiac GTO 2004-2006 The Modern Goat

automatic GTOs really that bad?

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Old 01-12-2009, 11:38 AM
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If your a drag guy, get the auto. If your into just totting around get the M6. I have an M6 and I get tired of shifting sum times. Plus I live in wisconsin and during the winter months cold shifts are a bitch. I now a guy with regular boltons and a 2600 rpm stall who ran 12.3 in his 04 A4 on 245 nittos. With a better stall and better tires who knows what he could of ran. Good luck. If i had o do it over again I would have went A4.
Old 01-12-2009, 10:31 PM
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I live in washington and drive to work 80 miles a day, would like it to be a DD. The traffic around here gets horrible, thats why I was thinking about an auto. Plus I would end up super charging it anyways.
Old 01-13-2009, 01:05 AM
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Funny how so many seem to want the opposite of what they have. Sometimes I wish I had an M6, until I spend a day at track.
Old 01-13-2009, 03:28 AM
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I could say that if you were a drag guy, than you should get the A4, but then I would be a hypocrite since I am a drag guy and still went with the M6. Granted the A4 is def better for drag racing. It's more consistent and and it's faster once you start to modify it. But manual's are just much more fun on and off the track.

As far as traffic, I drive in South Jersey everyday, in the Philadelphia area with a M6 and the traffic blows! But, I don't really mind it. If you would hate being in traffic with a manual than obviously it isn't for you. Although the gas mileage is much better with the M6. When my car was stock, I was getting 30-31 mpg highway. Not too bad for V-8!!
Old 01-14-2009, 08:13 AM
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Seriously.........

If you think roll racing with an auto sucks you either don't have enough hp or you don't have the transmission shift points set right with a stall.

The only time I'd ever want a M6 is if I was going to road race or I was really **** about mpg. Otherwise, absolutely get an A4.

I ran 12.45@110.5 with full exhaust, intake, tune and 245 nittos. Now I run mid 11s with a cam. I'm going for low 11s with heads and gears in a couple weeks. Much easier with an auto. No wheel hop as someone else said. If the car will see the 1/4 at all you will wish you got an auto.
Old 01-14-2009, 04:39 PM
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ive got both. a 2007 monte carlo ss a4 that i have raced a bunch of times. the gto is a M6 that i bought for a summer car to cruise around in. i dont race it so i love the stick. its more fun to cruise around town with
Old 01-14-2009, 04:50 PM
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Originally Posted by 6.0monsta
Seriously.........

If you think roll racing with an auto sucks you either don't have enough hp or you don't have the transmission shift points set right with a stall.

The only time I'd ever want a M6 is if I was going to road race or I was really **** about mpg. Otherwise, absolutely get an A4.

I ran 12.45@110.5 with full exhaust, intake, tune and 245 nittos. Now I run mid 11s with a cam. I'm going for low 11s with heads and gears in a couple weeks. Much easier with an auto. No wheel hop as someone else said. If the car will see the 1/4 at all you will wish you got an auto.
X2 When I'm at the track I wish I had a A4
Old 01-14-2009, 07:04 PM
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When I'm at the track I wish I had an M6....oh wait, I do.
Old 01-15-2009, 07:04 AM
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Originally Posted by muthstryker
I live in washington and drive to work 80 miles a day, would like it to be a DD. The traffic around here gets horrible, thats why I was thinking about an auto. Plus I would end up super charging it anyways.
Where in Wa?

there's a few of us here
look in the Northwest members section (of the regional forums)


Russ
Old 01-15-2009, 08:44 AM
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My A4 runs 11.6@120, no complaints here.
Old 01-15-2009, 09:06 AM
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Im going to swap my m6 i think for a turbo 400 and 4000 stall. Im done playing around. Roll racing fun, but the track is where its at.
Old 01-16-2009, 06:58 PM
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Get the A4 and just put a stall in it and get it tuned for the stall. I was pulling mid 1.8 60's stock and now get below 1.7 consistently with my mods.
Oh and whoever said there's no wheel hop in an automatic, I invite you to launch mine. It hops like an SOB.
Old 01-18-2009, 09:22 PM
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I was kinda in the same boat. I really wanted an M6 when I was looking, but found a killer deal on my A4, so thats what I got.

About 2 weeks ago, a friend of mine bought an '06 M6, and after driving it... I really wasnt sold on it like I thought I would be. I honestly think after driving both, I'd take the A4. I like the track, and I LOVED banging gears... but clutches and inconsistency got old quick.
Old 01-18-2009, 09:54 PM
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auto with a stall ya
Old 01-19-2009, 08:20 AM
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About 2 weeks ago, a friend of mine bought an '06 M6, and after driving it... I really wasnt sold on it like I thought I would be. I honestly think after driving both, I'd take the A4. I like the track, and I LOVED banging gears... but clutches and inconsistency got old quick.[/QUOTE]

Yea it gets old shifting all the time. I would go for the auto..
Old 01-19-2009, 12:50 PM
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stalled auto is pretty fun, up to you on what you want.
Old 01-20-2009, 09:28 AM
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Dont sweat the A4 until u drive it. I was looking for a 6 spd for a while. Test drove my first A4 and walked off the lot with it.
Old 01-20-2009, 02:02 PM
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yeah I love my a4 wanted a six speed but coulnd't pass up the deal well back then now I'd be gettin shafted now
Old 01-21-2009, 09:11 AM
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they both have their draw backs especially if you put some power down,autos are far better at the track,i get great gas milage we have a lock up converter seen as much as 33mpg on highway,then again my turbo setup helps alot in the effecincy .well until you nail it.
Old 01-21-2009, 10:06 AM
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I've owned both a 2004 M6, and a 2005 A4. The 6-speed was hell of fun to drive, and I do honestly miss it a bit... but I became pretty big on drag racing and the manual transmission just wasn't suited for bracket racing. It's fairly difficult to launch, and the slightest variable in how your car came off the line could result in to be around .2 tenths slower than a previous run.

I bought my Maggie'd A4 last year and was worried that it wasn't going to be as fun to drive. Well, maybe if the car was stock it wouldn't have been as fun... but I immediately was fairly comfortable with my purchase of the A4 after driving the car around. I later had a shift kit, 3200 stall converter, and a blower cam thrown in, and with drag radials on the rear it surely is a fun car to drive.

If you plan on modding your A4 I would highly recommend at least a street tune. Headers will require a more in-depth tune (a dyno tune), but with whatever route you may go with performance parts get those transmission settings tuned some. You can adjust at what % of the throttle and what MPH the transmission downshifts at, and you can make the trans down-shift an additional gear lower when you put the pedal down at a higher gear. For example, typically while driving at 65 mph in 4th gear and you put the pedal down all the way it may only kick down to 3rd gear. Well you have things adjusted so it kicks down into 2nd gear at that speed instead. Much more aggressive and plenty more fun.

Another great thing about the auto is that it holds up to power fairly decently. I was putting down in the neighborhood of 500 rwhp for a good while, with MANY track passes (most cutting low 1.5 60-foot times), and many downshifts and plenty of abuse on the street. I had a good trans cooler on the car (I HIGHLY recommend one regardless of modding plans), the shift kit, and the 3200 stall... and my otherwise stock 4L65E lasted me 20k miles. That may not sound like much, but when you consider the power my car was making and the constant, heavy abuse it took that's very respectable!

Perhaps my favorite thing about the automatic is the ability to usally not need to upgrade the rest of your driveline. Other than Royal Purple fluid in the diff and some BMR drag bags, the rest of my driveline is bone stock. Factory center unit/differential, half-shafts, axle stubs, driveshaft, etc. Once you start making power (around 400+ rwhp) in the M6 you start looking at a new clutch and probably new half-shafts and axle stubs at the very least once you start throwing on drag radials. The automatic transmission preloads the driveline so there's much less initial shock on the driveline when you launch. Not having to upgrade those components for a while saves you PLENTY of cash.

I do miss my M6 car, and there's nothing as fun as rowing through the gears.... but you can surely make an automatic fun to drive and probably have better results at the track if you get into drag racing. Don't look at the M6 because knowing how to drive a manual transmission, and owning a manual transmission is more impressive to most. Decide what your plans are for the car and what's going to work better for YOU. Most people would catch hell from others from having an automatic muscle car, but when they saw my car running anywhere from high 10's to low 11's at the track with how simple of a setup I had I never really caught any flack from anyone.


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