Fastball: no need to feel sorry for me. I need SMG only to track. Reason being my left leg is extremely weak (so weak that I have to lift it with my left arm to put it on the clutch pedal).

2nd I have an M Coupe which is fine for autoXing. but the sustained G-loads on a track kills my leg. After about 5-6mins I can't not press the clutch in to shift.

There is no one answer for what makes someone an ethusiast.
Some buy SMG for the novelty but most for it's added benefit on the track (at least the 3 people I know did). You can discount SMG as taking away from the driving experience but you can't argue with it's performance benefits

As it is I'm considering Lancer Evolution GTA (yes the automatic model).