I FOUND THIS AT LS1.COM.
a forum members driving impression of new6speed auto..
Originally Posted by COUPE
Interesting ... you must work for Ford then? ... What in your opinion feels quicker? the M6 or A6? ... Also let us all know what you think about the A6 in the 8.
hi Coupe,
No i don't work there, just have good contacts
I haven't driven the 6spd manual, just the 5spd MKI XR8, so can't really provide a reasonable comparison between any of hte cars, mainly because these new cars i've driven lately have all been in the wet/slippery conditions, not the best for determining how hard these performance cars can go.
I just peeled my arse out of the 6spd auto XR8, slippery to wet conditions tonight, not allowed to disable traction control (not that you'd really want to in these conditions though), clocked up almost 200k's, giving it the full boot wherever possible, but not speeding...
The thing is a great car to drive, impossible to compare to the turbo Ute we had simply because the conditions outlined above and not being able to fully push it.
We took it to some nice bits of blacktop, for the melbourne people, we drove up around yarra boulevard, sections of dry road where i was able to give it a good boot. Pushing it in 1st is almost impossible with traction control kicking in and fuel cutout/rev limiter occuring when the needle zooms up above 6000rpm, there's so much pull in this thing, with a viscious thrust above 4000rpm.
I really enjoyed the ride, very smooth and subtle on quality roads, but come the twisty and bumpy stuff, the car is very composed and planted, with hardly any noticable body role. I didn't really notice much push in the front when pushing through tight corners, but i'm sure that was because i wasn't pushing the car hard enough.
I've driven several variants with the 6spd auto, it's a great box, it just seems to get the best out of the engines with closer ratios for optimised power delivery through the gears. It's quick to shift in manual mode and pretty good in adaptive mode with some cool features for fuel saving.
What's faster, no idea, they both felt very powerful and quick, but until we get some better driving conditions, i couldn't make a decision.
The sound is damn nice in the XR8 though, first starts of with a roaring induction noise, then as revs go past 3500rpm where the engine really starts opening up, that rumble just takes over
Other than that, there really isn't mush else to report on, these mules look exactly like the current ones (apart from the new stick), so i suspect either the visual changes are minimal or just not revealed in these test cars. Mechaniclly, there may be other changes, but they aren't easily identified. I hear there are significant changes to suspension, ABS systems and so on.
fuel consumption - ~15L/100 on the trip (heavy heavy foot)
rpm'@100km/h in 6th - ~1,600
cheers