I think it's silly to assume that the 7AT with 10whp/10wtq less is going to outrun the 6MT. It doesn't make any sense. Yes, the 7AT has improve gearing, but it's not like the 5AT was really lacking much torque multiplication to begin with. The reality is the Caar & Driver times for the G37 6MT were slow. You can be certain that the 7AT and 6MT G37s will be 13.5.13.6@104mph+ cars.

 

We'll know as soon as the cars get in the hands of "joe 6 pack"

 

The G35 that trapped 104mph was a long term test car. It did 102mph when new and 104mph with 40K miles. These G37 6MT and 7AT test cars are relatively green (sub 5K miles). The G35 5ATs have always trapped within 1mph of the 6MT cars.

As for .2-.3 of a second equaling half car to a fender, you're sorely mistaken. It's closer to 1.5 to 2.5 cars lengths. I've made about 400 passes on the strip over the years.

 

Ditto. I should have clarified when comparing cars that trap the same. If traps are different, the distance gets stretched at the end.

 

DaveB I will tell u that even current generation 6MTs are much faster than the 5ATs. Eventhough gearing and final drive is similar, at highway speeds (60mph and up) the 6MT just pulls away with ease. I have seen it in first hand.
I recently did a 60-140 run with both auto and 6MT V36s and the results were so much different. I could see the 6MT driver'se face the whole time and the 5AT just fell behind pretty badly especially after 100mph..

 

I thought the 5at and 6mts has diff final drives?

Anyway, the 7 sp auto is said to have more agressive gearing so acceleration should be better (if the rear end ratios are the same)

 

^for 07-08, i think they are the same
FYI the 7AT has 3.3 final drive (which is the same as the 03-06 5ATs), where as the 6MT has 3.7 final drive and i thinkg if the 6th gear was NOT an overdrive gear the and the gearing stayed the same like the 03-06 6MTs, the current gen would be that much faster. 3rd gear is too tall for the G......

 

Well, I don't deny the 6MT should take an advantage above 100mph, but in the 1/4 mile, it's pretty much a wash, mod for mod. Look at the ET/MPHs for 1st gen G or Zs on street rubber and they're basically equal with the 6MT car usually posting 1mph+. My 5AT is doing almost 100mph in 1/4 mile with just a spacer and that's inline with what other 6MTs are seeing as well. You can screw up ET with poor driving, but MPH is really hard to mess up.

As for your 60-140mph race, I'd need to know more about the 5AT in terms of how the driver was shifting, his mods, etc. If he left it in auto, it's going to upshift 2, 3, and 4 way too early.

 

Well, i will bring up OCG35's auto. Before going with 3.7 final drive he was trapping 97 mph at CSW. Just changing his FD to 3.7 he gained 3 mph. That is huge considering how hard is it to gain MPH on these cars. I do think 3rd gear with stock FD is just too long for our cars considering the weight and TQ. If we had a big V8 with tons of tq, then yes 3.3 FD would be a better choice since u wouldn't have to waste that time of shifting gears.

As far as the the new G35s go, If im not mistaking both 6MTs and Autos have the same FD and also the gearing is similar for both of them since 6th gear is overdrive gear for new 6MTs. Both 6MTs and Autos finish their 3rd gear ~100-105 mph. When the race started @ 60mph with the V36 auto, I slightly pulled about a cl till 80mph and another 1/4 cl till 100mph. As soon as I went into 5th @ 105 mph, I started easily walking on the auto. We did this multiple times and the same exact result. Now with the 6MT, I gained about 1/2 car on him from 60-80, he caught up to me at 100mph and then till 140 mph we could see each other faces during the whole time.

Experiencing this outcome with both of these cars, I would think that having an extra gear like my car between 60-100mph it would help the cars dramatically and take very nice advantage of the high reving HR motor and keep the RPMs to its optimum spot. I am guessing this is what happened with the 7at tranny therefore trapping ~105mph, I really doubt there will be a huge difference when people actually dyno these cars and compare them to the 07-08 G35s. Im guessing 5-7 peak hp difference, but having that extra gear made this car so much faster.

BTW as for the auto driver, He was shifting right before the rev limiter for all the gears.

 

IMO, OCG35 must have changed more than just the final drive in order to gain 3mph. That's a pretty big gain and doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless something else was changed with the car. If these cars were woefully undergeared, I could believe make change in gearing could possibly add 2mph, but not when the stock 5AT gearing in the lower revving VQ35DE cars is pretty much spot on for 1/4 mile acceleration. It could be fractionally better, but I'm not convinced it would do much. I raced with a set of 24" tall DRs which effectively geared my car to a 3.55 and my car was actually slower in ET and MPH because of the forced shift into 4th.

As for your race against the 5AT, that's the outcome I'd expect.

The 7AT most definitely improved acceleration beyond 90mph. The HR motors are entirely different animals than the DE's. The HR's need all the torque multiplication they can get to stay in those lofty rpms. The HR also has a longer and fatter powerband. It doesn't really surprise me that HR's are achieving 105mph in the 1/4 mile. It's amazing, but not surprising.

 

I hope you are right as I would buy the 6MT but I have to disagree. It's not just wheel horsepower/torque. The 2 cars make basically the same power/torque. The shorter gearing of the 7AT will help the auto jump off the line and hold an advantage in 1st gear, less so in 2nd, etc. 3rd gear ends at 80 mph compared to 100 for the 6MT. That is not insignificant.

I've attached my calculated force to the ground for the 6MT, 7AT, and 335 (6 Speed)

0-30 mph the 7AT has a distinct advantage
30-40 mph the 6MT has the advantage
40-50 mph back to the 7AT
50-67 mph back to the 6MT

The difference in force is small at the higher mph. For instance, at 60 mph, the difference is 300 lbs. Compare that to at 20 mph, where the 7AT has a 700 lb advantage. Down at 10 mph, the difference is 1050 lbs, basically 50% more than the 6MT. Down low, the 7AT is very similar to the 335, so the character will be very different.

Why do you think the G37 sedan 6MT will be much faster than the G35 sedan 6MT? The difference in horsepower is minor. Basically the same torque curve as the G35HR except that it stays flatter for a bit longer. Not drastic though. That plus the slight weigt gain, I don't see more than a .1 second difference in the 1/4 mile from the G35.

 

The power curve of a VQ37VHR is different from the VQ35HR.

The HR continues to climb to redline, the VHR plateau's at about 6000 and stays FLAT to redline.

The VHR has much much more area under the curve. Combine that with superior gearing and the 7AT will blow the 6MT away, even with the weight penalty.

 

i still want to see 0-100 run in 10mph increments, 0-10, 10-20, etc. then it would be easier to compare these times to G35 and 335i is you wish. a single mention of 5sec 0-60 doesn't cut it for me - but good info nonetheless.

 

Not so sure about much more area.

G37 - 330 HP at 7000 rpm, 270 lb-ft torque at 5,200 rpm
G35 HR - 306 HP at 6,800 rpm, 268 lb-ft of torque at 4,800 rpm

Simple math says that at 7,000 rpm, the G37 is putting out 248 lb-ft of torque. At 6,800 rpm, the G35 us putting out 237 lb-ft of torque.

Both engines have pretty flat curves up to their torque peak. Above that 5,000 rpm, at best case scenario, the G37 is only putting out 10 more lb-ft of torque from 5,000 rpm to 7,000 rpm. based on the above math using just their ratings The G35 HR engine doesn't fall off that much (from a peak of 268 to 237 at roughly 7,000 rpm) which is similar to the G37. Above 7,000 rpm, they both drop off as that is beyond both cars horsepower peaks. Those 10 lb-ft of torque that the G37 has over the G35 HR engine is not enough to make a noticeable difference in performance, especially if some weight was gained.

The 7AT is a different story for the reasons mentioned already. Persoanlly, I don't think it matters - the G35 is already a quick enough car, so any improvement to the G37 is icing on the cake.

 

While the 7AT is very likely quicker than the 6MT, due to the differing conditions and testing methods btw C&D and MT, I'm not sure if the difference is as pronounced as indicated by the stats in these 2 magazines.

I would predict that, if one magazine were to test both the 6MT and 7AT on the same day, same track conditions, with the same test methodology, the performance would be closer - probably similar to how the 3 major car mags reached very close results for the auto and manual versions of the Cadillac CTS-V w/ the auto consistently being slightly quicker by a tenth here and there than the manual.