[Silverback51]

Originally Posted by patrickt

The short answer is "Yes." For a certain segment of this forum, it goes away rather quickly. I have never driven a Cobra with an automatic transmission. I have, however, driven very fast "old school" cars with automatic transmissions. I can only imagine that the danger posed by an automatic transmission shift, in a car whose rear end breaks away as easily as the Cobra, would be catastrophic. In fact, almost any shift, during acceleration, where the nose of the car is not pointed straight ahead, is probably dicey. An automatic transmission should be for gentle, easy cruising. If you try and road race a light, short wheel base, high horsepower Cobra with an automatic, I think you're going to end up in the trees... or a casket.

Remember Jim Hall's Can Am Chapparrals? They were automatics and did very well. A lot of it has to do with how they are set up.

Personally I dislike vacuum secondaries more than automatics.