I was wondering if anyone uses automatic transmissions on road courses. I remeber there was a few autoxers that did several years ago. It's not that I don't want to go to a T5 or even T56, I'm just doing the bad thing I do & think too much about stuff! I even have a Hurst shifted T10 with everthing for the 74 camaro.

I have a lot of experience driving at Thunderhill with my '97 TA A4 car. It is a little scary in spots, even with the mild setting on the Trans Go shift kit I have in it. First to deal with is "auto drift" when the torque converter disengages..this is a little disconcerting, I remember that happening coming out of T5 (Crow's Nest). On top of T9 exit it did not want to downshift, you just let off the throttle a little bit and it will go. The next scary thing is going into of the esses out of T 11, you do not want that sucker shifting when you are in the esses, that could upset the car and head it into the wall there. Shifting at the wrong time and upsetting the car is a biggie that you have to look out for. Keep these things in mind and you should do fine.

If you have access to some tuning software, you can change the shift points. (upshift, downshift, tc engage, tc disengage)

For example, I've got mine set so it won't automatically downshift from 3 to 2 if I'm going over 45 mph. And 3rd is good to 135mph too.

Even with the shift points changed, you can still manually downshift if you want/need to.

It's also currently upshifting from 1-2 and 2-3 at 4500 rpms, but that's just because of the turbo. The street tires are just starting to spin (vss shows a 5mph spike/bump that settles back down to a steady climb on the scanner chart) right when it upshifts. I can manually hold it down in a gear longer if I want to.

Makes the car much more manageable this way.

I was thinking more along the lines of a 700R4 thats been shift kitted so you can hold it in the gear you want.
Thats the way my 79 Camaro was, It had a kitted TH350 & B&M quick silver ratchet shifter. Worked for autox.

I started out tracking in an L98 IROC with the 700R4. After a few events my pace picked up and the tranny became a liability (and these events were run on Pep Boys tires). The final time that I tracked the car, I was using a 3-2 downshift in a hard right-hander to rotate the car. It didn't take long to grenade the tranny. IMO, if you are out there for fun, don't pound it and accept that you won't be 100% at certain places on the track it will probably be OK. Also keep in mind that very few people can accept this limitation for very long.

I had a big tranny cooler on mine and I think I was still getting it real hot and boiling the fluid. That's the only explanation I have for track days covering the pan and underneith of my car with fluid. Normal driving had hardly anything.

I decided to fix it with a Jerico

Stan is that a 4 speed, Or did they start making 5 speeds. I remember looking inside of a jerico once, Wow I thought my brother inlaw's rock crusher (M22) was beefy.

My instructor decided to time me from shifting manual to letting the trans do it, letting the trans do it won. A lot of it is just knowing when to hit the gas and how hard. I agree with Keith that you won't be happy doing this long and your 700R4 won't live a long time once you hit a certain skill level. On the safety end, it is just much more safe having the trans slow down the car instead of that "auto-drift" stuff that happens. Once you experience that you'll understand!

We did some calculations years back for a "paralyzed" racer who couldn't feel his legs so shifting was a problem, plus the torque multiplication through the trans has many good options. Our calcs were for cooling a 302 (400HP) for 45minutes of track time. The cooler ended up being almost the size of the radiator.

If your just doing track days I would get the biggest feasible cooler for the 700R4 that you could. A shift kitted manual valve body 700R4 could be kind of fun once you learn how to drive it. Its almost like running a sequential gear box.

I can only afford a 4 speed. The 5 speeds are about 6k$ IIRC.

I felt such a pussy being the only guy at the track with an auto. I might have overcompensated with the Jerico, but it's fun.

I was sick of the sloppyness of the auto but mostly the leaking. 60 lb weight reduction is cool too.

Scott (Roadracetransam) has ran an 4L60E for quite some time and had good results (5th at nationals and 2nd or 3rd in is region in TTB). Maybe he'll chime in.



ERVRCG, interesting info about the calcs. I guess that confirms my theory.

Are you using my name in vain again?
So I had the 4L60E with the E part removed. I got it built up fairly bullet proof, extra cluch packs, steel sleeve, manual shift kit, all the electronics removed. I also had a rachet shifter and a heavy duty torque converter. The converter was needed for the loopey cam. Also I put 2 oil coolers in series, each 11"X18", in front of the radiator. Even with that much cooling I reached 300 degrees by the end of the sessions. Fluid changes after every other event. I only had the "auto drift" in 4th gear. With my 3.23 gearing I only grabbed 4th in the MidOhio backstraight (not a problem since it was in a straight line) and CalSpeedway in the oval, (bit conserning) Otherwise it held the gears and RPM's the same as a manual. Shifted when I hit the rachet up or down, never by it's self. Sounded like dragster, wide open throttle shifts.
I moved on to the T56 (still sitting on the garage floor) because I plan on moving to AI in 2009. Only syncromesh trannies alowed. I could have run it in AIX, I just don't have the $ to do that.
It is doable. Would I do it again? Probably not, but it was fun while I had it.
There was another Auto in TT here in SoCal. '71 Trans Am with a TH400 reverse manual valvebody. He was TTD champ with that car in '05, '06. Blew the motor in '07 and got a 2001 ex-SCCA Firebird with a manual.

No, but now I am &$%& #@! Scott!

Trans on the shop floor hmmm. I have a Kenne Bell TH 400 street /strip trans. Less than 10,00 miles on it been sitting a long time (full of fluid). That was one hard shifting trans. more than likely I put in a T5 befpre long though. I was just asking to see what is being used.