Manual or Auto F1 Mode?

The auto mode is jerky and doesn't shift well. It will use clutch life faster. How often do you plan on keeping it in auto?


There are about 1 million threads on this if you do a search.

 

Auto mode wastes everything the ferrari was intended to be. Consider it an emergency mode, if you must drive with one hand for some reason, as a stop gap in case a loved one needs to borrow your car to get someone to the hospital, that sort of thing. Otherwise, cruise that thing between 3500-5000 RPM and keep it buzzing like a bee at all time and you're in for the ride of your life. Auto exactly prevents you from enjoying your ferrari at all, AT ALL.

 

Auto Mode = Only for the Air Conditioner. If you are too busy to be bothered with shifting, just leave it in 2nd, works from 5mph to the speed limit.

 

Come on, that auto uses more clutch than manually shifting is an urban legend and it get propagated by people who heard it from someone else, not based on facts. The TCU uses the same shift profile in auto as it does manually shifting = same clutch wear.

The biggest difference is that auto modes short shifts every gear so you end up in a much higher gear than you would have picked. Honestly, that tends to make it smoother since the rev match is pretty easy.

Now I agree with Piper that it sucks the fun out of it. I have used it when I was on a conference call (hands free of course) and had a cup of coffee or when I had someone in the car and wanted to put my hand on their knee, leg, ... It has its uses.

 

Sorry it's not an urban legend that auto mode eats clutches faster than manual in an F1-- at that's straight from the horse's mouth. The chief mechanic at our dealership gave a seminar explaining that in auto mode, the software is altered for a smoother shift, better fuel economy, and lower emissions.

This is why the car starts in Auto mode. It goes through the EPA test in it's "normal" default setting-- which the factory sets as Auto.

The downside is more shifts at lower RPM and more clutch slip.

More shifts and more slip mean a shorter clutch life.

 

Its there but never used it my self, and I don't intend to either.

 

How can anyone drive the Ferrari in Auto mode

 

I haven't tried it yet, but I am curious.

 

Thank you for clearing that up for him.

I try to not post untrue information ever. It only leads to more misleading facts and that's multiplied by the number of people who read it. Like I said, auto does eat the clutch faster. I attended a tech shop where they had 2 clutches from 430s. One solely driven in manual mode that had 38,000 miles on it, the other with 7,000, all of which were driven in auto mode(owner's wifes car). Needless to say both cars were in for clutch replacements. The car with 7,000 automatic miles looked even worse than the one with 38,000. The owner of the 38,000 mile car wouldn't have even been in the shop in the first place if he hadn't been selling the car. The buyer wanted a new clutch.

I have put the car in auto once, just to see what it was like. It was terrible. You can just feel that the car is not shifting like it should.

 

I read the same in the Maserati section for Grand Turismo F1 cars.

 

Nonsense.

I am sure there has to be more than that!

I like F1 cuz it's different and fun. Seems the true gearheads like 3 pedals. I like that too. Try both and pick the one you prefer. I think that has been said $1 million times too.

 

Hey, auto mode isn't so bad, really. It seems to adapt to how you're driving and doesn't do too badly. My 2007 starts in manual mode and I never use auto. But I have a young genius daughter who, while she had every college science scholarship in the world offered to her, seems as far from understanding how a manual transmission works as physicists are from a unified field theory. So I took her out on a Sunday morning to a deserted road, put it in auto and let her rip, or rather tentatively advance near the speed limit. It, and she, did fine. Then after twenty minutes she advanced to manual mode and pronounced it more fun. And all this without the tears (both hers and mine) I inadvertently brought about when I tried to teach her to shift in our 300ZX. Ferrari saves the day!

 

Honestly, if you want to go through clutches much more quickly than using "auto mode", park up a steep driveway, spend all your time in stop and go traffic, and reverse a lot.

Using auto mode is insignificant to these methods which wear down a clutch.

 

Totally agree with Bdelp. Clutch wear is all about starting from a stop and reversing. The rest is insignificant. My Maserati Gransport 2006 (about the same software as most 360's) is at 49,000 with the original clutch. The technique is like driving a manual. Give it some gas as the clutch engages back off slightly and let is hook up fully and then go for power. The accelerator pedal actually controls the throw out bearing position at the start. You can feel clutch slip as you push the pedal down. Let off the gas at very slow speed and the clutch goes in again and free wheels just like a manual clutch pedal. Once you are above 1500 RPM it is all locked up. No more slippage of any magnitude.

Reverse is a whole different deal. In reverse it is almost always slipping. Backing up a hill will probably generate clutch smell. Use reverse gently.

My Stradale is 15,000 miles showing 11% clutch wear. They are not that fragile. Just don't mash it like an automatic and you should be good for a long time. Also I always let the traffic in front get a few car lengths ahead to eliminate the need to back off right after you start and then slip the clutch again. And of course no automatic style low speed creeping.

Also I rarely downshift to 1st. Downshift to 2nd and let the computer put it in 1st when you stop.
Have fun.

 

My dealer told me exactly this when I first picked up my F430. One of the best things about the 458 gearbox is you don't have to do this anymore. I downshift into first all the time and it's a blast to come out of low speed corners now.

 

Thanks, I didnt know that, although I started to do that after noticing shifts to first were rough unless going pretty slow.

 

What's your thought on going to neutral before a stop vs. stopping the car in 2nd gear?

 

I think I get your idea but I'm not sure.

There is one thing that bugged me about the F430's F1 system. When you go to N then coast or brake a while-- and then select a gear to move again while moving -- it always seems like the car is in the wrong gear, usually too high.

Instead of being in 2nd at say 4000 RPM, you're in 3rd or even 4th at 2300. It always seems like when I got a gear back, I had to flick down one or 2 gears quickly before I could be in a good torque range.

Now, this may seem like no big deal but when you're trying to come out hard of a corner, its more than you want to be concerned with.

Because of this, I rarely went to N and the back to a gear unless I stopped first. If you stay in gear and just keep going through them up and down, you don't have this issue. As soon as you ask the computer to select the proper gear for you at any given speed, it seems to always select a gear or 2 too high.

As to clutch wear, anything that involves using the clutch will wear it. If you don't drive the car, you'll never wear out the clutch!

 

OMG why would you ever want to "go to N then coast or brake for a while"
Hope I never drive like that!
Have never used the auto button, doubt I ever will.

 

My Ferrari has an auto mode! Learn something new everyday.

 

Thanks for all this info, very valuable thanks alot.

I've always cruised in auto mode until I get the engines up to proper operating temperatures, time to skip this process.

 

Sorry, no offense intended, but that absolutely *is* a bogus urban legend. Auto mode in the Ferrari F1 does *NOT* cause any more wear to the clutch than manual mode. No matter how many times somebody’s mechanic says auto mode eats clutches because the software is different, the fact remains that auto mode uses the identical same software as manual mode. The only difference between auto and manual modes is who makes the decision to shift. In auto mode a computer makes that decision while in manual mode the driver makes the choice. No other difference.

Assuming the clutch is correctly installed and adjusted, virtually all F1 clutch wear occurs at starting from stopped. It’s true auto mode generally shifts more often than most drivers in manual mode, but that is simply inconsequential compared to the importance of proper technique at starting from stopped. Reverse and low traction mode use the same constant slip software (quite different from auto and manual mode software) and can cause undue wear if used to excess.

I’m sure the above story is true about the wife’s car using auto mode wearing out the clutch faster. The difference was her technique at starting from stopped, not her use of auto mode. C’mon guys – we’ve covered this before and it’s time to stop spreading the misinformation about F1 auto mode.