Im buying a 380, How much quicker is a manual, Any pros and cons would be appreciated 175kw standard in NZ manual sounds great, Do they feel user freindly. CHEERS:)

Im buying a 380, How much quicker is a manual, Any pros and cons would be appreciated 175kw standard in NZ manual sounds great, Do they feel user freindly. CHEERS:)
Its not. Been there done that. Get the auto and be happy with a great user friendly engine and trans combo. The manual will not go as well and it will use more fuel.

Get the auto and do the mods we've done here... and you'll be very happy with it.

Its not. Been there done that. Get the auto and be happy with a great user friendly engine and trans combo. The manual will not go as well and it will use more fuel.
Are you sure I thought manuals always went better, My current ride is a 3L manual which goes better than any 3L auto diamante.

Are you sure I thought manuals always went better, My current ride is a 3L manual which goes better than any 3L auto diamante.
Yep. I had a VRX manual and to me it was nothing but disappointing. The 3.8 engine teams up with the auto box much more successfully. I was also hard pressed to get mine much below 12 l/100 on the highway where as autos are into the 8's. Acceleration wise the 3.8 in manual form seems to be very torque limited form my experience. As it has a "fly by wire" TB the ECU always has the last say in what the throttle butterfly was doing. The autos dont seem to have as much intervention from the ECU.

If you are interested in another manual owners viewpoint PM Blue380. He has a manual VRX with the 90mm intake and rear muffler change and he always seemed to get better results than i did.

pretty sure the manual 380's went to a 4.1:1 final ratio on the diff, which is a massive jump from the 3.5 magna's 3.7:1 but it will make the car feel quicker off the line, but thats about it.

larger engine, plus diff ratio, plus weight means higher fuel consumption, no real benefit from the manual magna's

I was also hard pressed to get mine much below 12 l/100 on the highway where as autos are into the 8's.

I cannot see that there would be that there would be anything like that much difference in fuel consumption - just about every other vehicle is more fuel-efficient in manual form (it's lighter for a start...). Sounds like driving style was more of a factor here.

I cannot see that there would be that there would be anything like that much difference in fuel consumption - just about every other vehicle is more fuel-efficient in manual form (it's lighter for a start...). Sounds like driving style was more of a factor here.
Um... No. If you look at the gear ratios you will see that the manual is revving at 2800 ish at 100 km/h and the auto 2000 at 100. If you look at the respective gearing in each you will notice the following...

Manual; 5th .804 + 4.11 final drive = overall ratio 4.914
Auto; 5th .686 + 3.325 final drive = overall ratio 4.011

As you can see from the the above the engine in top gear in the manual is turning almost a full revolution more than the auto at any given time. And in every other ratio the auto is taller geared thus turning over less for every given road speed.

Even the official ADR 81/01 says the following...

Manual; 11.4 l/100
Auto; 10.8 l/100

I cannot see that there would be that there would be anything like that much difference in fuel consumption - just about every other vehicle is more fuel-efficient in manual form (it's lighter for a start...). Sounds like driving style was more of a factor here.
Mines a manual...on the last country trip I did with the family in the car, air on etc it did 8.5l/100 travelling between 80-100 kmh.

As far as performance goes, its difficult to comment as I havent been in a modded auto so I've nothing to compare it with. My car is extremely frustrating in that some days it goes very well, and others it feels almost standard...not sure whats causing it (I realise hot weather affects it), possibly ECU not knowing what it wants to do.

Mines a manual...on the last country trip I did with the family in the car, air on etc it did 8.5l/100 travelling between 80-100 kmh.

As far as performance goes, its difficult to comment as I havent been in a modded auto so I've nothing to compare it with. My car is extremely frustrating in that some days it goes very well, and others it feels almost standard...not sure whats causing it (I realise hot weather affects it), possibly ECU not knowing what it wants to do.
Short answer ................ Chip it!

As far as performance goes, its difficult to comment as I havent been in a modded auto so I've nothing to compare it with. My car is extremely frustrating in that some days it goes very well, and others it feels almost standard...not sure whats causing it (I realise hot weather affects it), possibly ECU not knowing what it wants to do.
You can compare with mine sometime. Ours have the exact same mods... and mine's auto. I could also see what a manual is like.

Short answer ................ Chip it!

As above.

Everyday the car feels "sharp" and you feel you are getting every KW.

As far as the OP goes, the normal convention of manual being superior is turned on its head in the case of the 380.
The manual has only ever being recorded as around 0.2-0.3 secs faster over 400m and I think the reason has been explained well by Type40 (BTW I'm sure the auto is doing 1900rpm at 100kmh).

Simply the 380 has lots of torque and the manual is almost overgeared. As evidence, the TMR380 in manual form failed to deliver any substantial gains over the quarter due wheelspin and simply running out of revs in each gear too quickly and too many gear changes within the time period.

The auto by comparison has a better spread of ratios. De-restrict the engine and suddenly you have some real performance.

Every other large passenger car has much lower geared ratios; check out the VE and its second gear.

Short answer ................ Chip it!
Yeah, I have considered the chip option but I'm not quite sold on the idea of spending upwards of $1200 for possibly less then 10kw. (I think I've been spoilt by the big gains for little cost muffler/intake mods). On the positive side, I would be happy to have the same sharpness about the car every day but for that price I'm not quite sure yet.

Although I understand what your saying about the auto gear ratio's being better suited to the engine than the manual ratio's, I always thought automatic transmissions robbed the vehicle of power before it got to the wheels and manuals didnt do that???

And just for the record, at 100kmh my car revs a smidge over 2500 but I have 18's with 235/45 tyres so perhaps that makes it slightly taller geared.

Although I understand what your saying about the auto gear ratio's being better suited to the engine than the manual ratio's, I always thought automatic transmissions robbed the vehicle of power before it got to the wheels and manuals didnt do that???


That's true.
But from a ratios point of view I think autos have the edge. It may not mean the autos are outright faster but with more power will respond better i.e. use the power better

We need to have a track day with modded autos and a manual....:P

We need to have a track day with modded autos and a manual....:P
Track days are sensational! You will have a ball!

Did someone say Track Day I'm in as i did race for 8 years, then got out of it due to my wife being pregnant

Did someone say Track Day I'm in as i did race for 8 years, then got out of it due to my wife being pregnant

Welcome to the AMC Forum, friend.

Whereabouts in QLD are you?

Hey fella im Ash, and im living Collingwood Park, how bout u.:)

I'm at Bribie Isl, not so long ago was at Carindale.

But looking for a few of us in Brisvegas to visit Willowbank soon to see what a modded 380 can do.

Tell us about your ride - any pics?

Picked up my 2007 380 Platinum Edition 2 weeks ago from Warwick and its only got 600k's on it and i havent got any pics as yet sorry. But when theres a few more k's on her i'll be going down to see Bill at CNJ as they did all the tunning on my Race car.

Picked up my 2007 380 Platinum Edition 2 weeks ago from Warwick and its only got 600k's on it and i havent got any pics as yet sorry. But when theres a few more k's on her i'll be going down to see Bill at CNJ as they did all the tunning on my Race car.

Hey fantastic!

I met Bill for the first time a week back. CNJ have just chipped another forum member's car (Foozrcool) with extractors and a few other bits and pieces for breathing. You might have been reading some of what we've been doing.
Foozrcool reached 163KW ATW which is pretty outstanding for an auto with light mods and Kelvin was impressed.

BTW you won't have truly run yours in until you have at least 6000km on it. Most of us reckon the engine/trans was best after 10 000KM.

Hey fantastic!

I met Bill for the first time a week back. CNJ have just chipped another forum member's car (Foozrcool) with extractors and a few other bits and pieces for breathing. You might have been reading some of what we've been doing.
Foozrcool reached 163KW ATW which is pretty outstanding for an auto with light mods and Kelvin was impressed.

BTW you won't have truly run yours in until you have at least 6000km on it. Most of us reckon the engine/trans was best after 10 000KM.
Yeah my Father has a 2006 380 GT and he said that his has opened up alot more from new and he loves it

Thanks to everyone who gave an opinion on auto vs manual, Yesterday I bought a 2006 silver 380 38,000kms 2 year warranty 1/3 deposit 1/3 every year for 2 years no interest or fees. I pick her up tomorrow, SWEEEEET:D $21000, NZ DOLLARS How does that compare pricewise with whats available in AUSSIE???

Thanks to everyone who gave an opinion on auto vs manual, Yesterday I bought a 2006 silver 380 38,000kms 2 year warranty 1/3 deposit 1/3 every year for 2 years no interest or fees. I pick her up tomorrow, SWEEEEET:D $21000, NZ DOLLARS How does that compare pricewise with whats available in AUSSIE???
Congrats on the purchase! If you got an ES or base than thats about comparable with our prices. If you managed to get an SX or above then you have done very well!

Had a drive of a stock VRX auto today & I must say I was very impressed. I'm struggling to remember what mine was like pre mods but it certainly felt slower than this auto. In fact, I would say the auto felt to have at least as much as mine does now below 4000 but did start to feel a little breathless up top.

This certainly adds to the thoughts that the auto gearing is better suited to the 380 than a manual. I will have to take up Grubco on the offer to take his modded auto for a spin...something deep down tells me I may be in for rude shock!!!

I will have to take up Grubco on the offer to take his modded auto for a spin...something deep down tells me I may be in for rude shock!!!
Arrangements for comparison test drive to take place shortly.

Grubco & I drove each others vehicles this arvo. A bit of background...both have identical rear mufflers, 90mm intake, K & N, his has 32000k's, mine 34000, his is auto whilst I have manual. After driving both, we agreed there was nothing between them. I realise the manual Magnas are certainly quicker than auto but it would appear its not the case with 380's. But on the other hand, it has been suggested that auto's are actually quicker however I would argue that is not the case either. I also noticed Grubco's fuel rate was reading about 12l/100kms and mine was 12.2/100kms.

As Blue380 said, we drove each other's cars today. I especially liked the 380 manual gearbox, and found it easy and pleasant to drive. I'm not mechanically minded, but I found both cars to be virtually identical in power (and sound). Having said that, in previous eras manuals would have been superior to an auto any day (ie 5spd manual vs 4 spd auto) - yet in this era, autos have evolved a lot (ie 5spd, 6spd, tiptronic)... and I still found both cars to be on par with each other. In conclusion, I personally would not be so hasty to 'put down' the manual 380s.
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh10/grubco/380blueblack3.jpg

Well, that settles it then.

Nice shot BTW and good lookin new wheels, Pete :D