Anything will -feel- like it has more power with a manual vs. automatic, whether it's a honda 4-banger vtec or a chevy small block 350. I'd estimate that most auto's eat up anywhere from 5-15 pony's depending on the transmission. I could be wrong on the exact numbers, and I'm not sure how they'd measure it, but it's definitely significant. I don't see why a vtec motor would produce less HP in any way in an auto, as far as raw power is concerned, as long as the auto allows for higher RPM's since vtec kicks in in the higher RPM range.