sksvlad

I really like driving standard (in US parlance: stick shift) cars. My MB is auto, unfortunately. How many standard shift AMG cars does MB import to the USA per year? I am trying to assess my possibility of driving standard AMG (in the future).

insame1

0. AMG in US = automatic.

ambit

I can't think of a single manual AMG, ever.
Even the CLK GTR.

Zonda maybe? Uses an AMG motor.

insame1

https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...-amg-cars.html

sksvlad

Thanks for clarifying that AMG US market has NO manual cars. How about Germany? Do they drive manual AMG's? Just curious.

insame1

The last post I made with the link pretty much sums it up. I couldn't tell you for sure though.

tw2

As in the other thread, no manual AMGs were made for any markets.

floridawriter

A few older AMGs from the 1980's like the Baby Hammer, and the W124 E36AMG came with Getrag manuals.

Khan 55

I would see this as both a safety feature as well as convenience for the driver. Merc fitted auto boxes so people driving the AMG's wouldn't easily damage the box on the car like you would with quick/snap changing on any regular manual box car. Believe me, if you broke it, you gona pay a pretty $ for repairs or replacement.
I heard a salvage yard owner for Mercs here in my area fitted the manual box off the wagon mercs of the 2002 up model. Apparently he had a lot of difficulty getting it to work and eventually sold the car. Wouldn't see the reason of need for a manual box on a luxury car

GatorMB

Top loader 4 speed or a munci m-21/22 (Rock Crusher) was top cog. Borg Warner started tooling for ford in 1965 and again in 1982, The 5 speed was born.

Doug Nash started building drag gear boxes as well. It is truly fun to control your limitations but fun and computers with 400hp + start a deregulation issue, Automatic transmissions are the way to go in the street.
Benz never registered a EPA legal manual gearbox car.

The computers are fast and right on top of what we want for making some serious noise plus leaving a cloud of other cars at the light.

to build a true racing machine I might think otherwise.

Cheers, Gator

///AchMeinGott

Some of you guys hurt my heart.

A good driver was faster then 95% of 90's and even many 00's auto gearboxes, AMG included. It wasn't untill things like the current wave of dual clutches, ZF8 speed, or GM's 8 speed came about that auto's unquestionably dominated. There's no 2 ways about it, AMG was foolish for not offering a manual early on. The LT1, LS1, and hemi all have power curves fairly similar to the m113, no reason MB couldn't have mated a T56 to them and adjusted the diff gearing accordingly. Now that the trans, engine, and suspension are all tied together on cars, I can sort of understand it.

For a drag car? Shove a C6, powerglide, or DCT behind it. A street car? A good manual trans just keeps you more involved. It's a real hard pill to swallow if I go C/CLK55, I'll own another auto for 5+ years, especially when my other option is a 400hp/400lb-ft 6 speed car...

GatorMB

If you have ever done any bracket Drag Racing in the 70's - early 80's. the standard transmission was hard to beat.

Shift kits firmed the shifts lag up a bit and B & M Transmission felt confident enough to manufacture custom torque converters and Clutch drive adapter kits for US cars.

The kit utilized a custom input shaft that used a manual transmission input shaft for the AT and was driven by Manual transmission clutch. This launched the car at any desired RPM and snap manual shift points from the automatic transmission modified valve body.

Once the computers came into the transmission The standard transmission became an underdog in real time performance figures.

I agree with you and thousands of Porsche folks. Controlling your own car with a clutch makes driving a performance vehicle more desirable.

GatorMB

There is a complete manual transmission with flywheel cables, shifter, pedal out of a C-class. Craigslist Orlando