I like the comfort of using my 99 pearl white SS for my daily commute of 80 miles for school with coffee in hand half asleep at 6 in the morning and going out of my bumpy roads. If I don't spill coffee on me I'm happy. But then I still have the performance there when I want to have fun and feel sporty. all with the fantastic prelude body style. And yes it is surprising fast for an automatic, plenty of power and even low end grunt for getting around town. I feel like I'm going faster then everyone else all the time and rarely even get my car into VTEC. Then when I put it in VTEC it just roars at me and is still bone stock! Can't wait to get an intake. I think they meant for this to be a sporty automatic and that's why they made it the tiptronic. Which is really a good tranny with cool technology like the grade logic control system, I think it was just alittle ahead of its time.
Check out this press release about the honda transmissions. To learn more about the auto.
http://corporate.honda.com/press/art...20010221001321
I heard stock times were
97-01 base- 15.1-15.5
97-01 Type SH- 15.2-15.6
97-01 SS- 15.7-16.1
. So Yes the 5spd is a little faster. But not that much really anyway. I think it says more that the SS actually nearly keeps up with the 5spd then anything! Thats pretty darn good. I guess those frations of a second might seem like a lot to someone who this is like their entire life to get a second faster. But really it's not much at all. I mean what is that like 1 car length? Big deal. I like to be different also. And I think it is cool that with a few upgrades you could have a sport shift that will beat a manual. But I will admit that for road coarse racing the 5spd may be a lot better. But since I dont street race and we don't have any good race tracks where I live I really cant say. Not sure if I'll ever even push my prelude to it's limit on some twisty roads. Or why I would want to anyhow? Seems kind of immature.
the automatic prelude is actually pretty cool. Just the fact that it is all computerized and your car is shifting for you but you are choosing when to shift is a cool feeling. And I like the way it displays what gear you are in on your tach. Reminds me of the high-end cars gear indicator display. The shifts are pretty quick, there is like a 1 second delay from when you tap the shifter but then it shifts for performance you can tell. I wish it would shift alittle quicker but I bet you can modify that somehow. And in regular automatic mode it has upgraded technology that chooses when to shift for you based on what your car is doing. So basically you end up with a really good ride and perfect shifts.
after I got used to the sport shift and learned how to use it smoothly I realized its actually pretty badass. You still basically have the same power of the manual, I mean it is the same engine after all. And the cool feeling of shifting electronically and also luxury of being able to let the car take over. Like after a long day of work and sitting in traffic, or when you are on a date with a hot girl and you want to just gently cruise and concentrate on her rather then your stick shift.
And if it breaks, i'll just replace or rebuild it and put some upgrades in it. I saw this racing transmission kit
http://www.importperformancetrans.co...uto.shtml#main , I wonder how good that is?Then maybe it will shift even faster, that would be cool. Haven't had a single problem with mine yet though. But I do try and take care of it because I take into account it is said to be fragile. So I don't do crazy stuff with it. And only get down on it or use sport shift every now and then. All in all I think people have gotten carried away on bashing the 5th gen SS tranny. Apparently it had some faults and they improved upon it I'm sure. its really not bad at all if its working propery. Which I think in reality most of them do work propery.
I have nothing agianst manual either. in fact I love them also I have been driving nothing but manual for the past 10 years. Thats why I'm so glad to have an automatic for all my daily driving! What a relief.. So now I can maybe take the manual out on the weekends you know? I wouldn't mind getting a manual lude SH either. One day I think I will. But I got a couple of Miata autocross cars and a street bike at the moment. And yes they are manual. I may never autocross my SS prelude. But that doesn't mean its not still a pretty cool car.
I would like to run mine at the track and see what it gets because mine runs pretty strong and shifts great.
P.S. Put a good new shift knob with a little more weight on your SS shifter makes it feel way better! They came with kinda crappy knobs.