I just took out a 7AT for a ride...

kannibul

Honestly, how is there a difference from an operational, driver's, point of view between this transmission and an F1 transmission?

Both involve user intervention to make the shift, ie, pressing a paddle (or button), to initiate the shift, in sequence.

Am I saying they perform equally, hell no, but from an "enthusiast" (controlled) driving perspective, how is it really all that different? In fact, I'd say the advantage would go here to the 7AT because you can keep both hands on the wheel and manage your transmission with a flick of a finger. It's not an automatic imitating a manual, it's an automatic imitating a dual-clutch sequential transmission (ie, fast shifts) in fact, you could look at it the other way and say that SRM is the 6MT imitating the 7AT...

Until this car and it's transmission came along, I'd agree with you, automatics were slushy and too focused on being "smooth" in shifting...this car is anything but. Even in "auto" mode, it's still pretty firm between shifts. Move it over to manual mode, and it WILL NOT shift short allowing the driver to kill the engine for forgetting to downshift.