A8 Transmission vs M6?

[68coronet]

If you had to choose one?

 

[Hunter]

Opening Pandora's box.

Watching....

 

[Old Mopar Guy]

Did have to choose one. M6 for me.

 

[Hunter]

A8
Disabled, cannot use left leg/foot like I used to.

 

[68coronet]

I love the A8, but I miss driving a manual. I'm looking at a 392 w/M6.

 

[Linda's Hell Cat]

A8 FTW for Dragracing!

This is for those that want to Daily Drive and go to the track!

I do like driving a manual and own cars that are

Linda

 

[Paladin06]

Both of mine are A8 so......

 

[ACMAVRO]

M6 all the way baby😎 Throw a few mods and your golden. I heard you can’t order hc 21’s w m6 and so Im guessing the days are numbered

 

[Octanewide]

M6 all the way baby😎 Throw a few mods and your golden. I heard you can’t order hc 21’s w m6 and so Im guessing the days are numbered

Maybe still available..

 

[DGatzby]

On this car, with what is offered? A8. May have a different opinion on another vehicle.

 

[jroyk]

Autonomous 8s is what I like to call them, but if you’re racing or commuting in traffic they’re the way to go.

 

[68coronet]

Autonomous 8s is what I like to call them, but if you’re racing or commuting in traffic they’re the way to go.

The traffic... yeah, it's bad here. As a matter of fact, it's 90% the reason why our 2020 Challenger has less than 1300 miles on it.

 

[fumanchu182]

So, I took my driving test as a 17 year old and with a manual, that was 20 years ago. It will forever have a fond place in my heart but I don't have a need for a manual anymore outside of nostalgia. For drag racing an A8 is the best we are going to get (outside of a turbo 400 with air shifter). If I need to take control of the trans, that's what paddle shifters are for.

 

[why2kmax]

I had a T/A 392 with an M6 that I drove for 52k miles
My 2019 1320 has an A8 of course and Ive got 14,500 on that.
Im 54 and grew up in the late 70s and early 80s when cars mostly sucked and auto transmissions were worse

Drag racing, the A8 is the way to go if you care about the quicker ETs
If you do a lot of highway cruising the adaptive cruise on the A8s is quite nice.
Every once in a while I wish the trans would hold the gear longer but I can always use the paddles but thats still a foreign concept to me and never feels right

The T/A M6 having been gone almost 2 years I sort of miss rowing the gears a bit but not enough to be sorry I have an A8 now.

For me the M6 cars need a Barton shifter. The oem one is sloppy BUT some people like the soft easy push on it and dont like the directness and stiffness of the barton. Its way easier to shift quickly with the barton but you need to mean it.

My M6 clutch always seemed to engage differently when driving it and at times I couldnt be smooth which pissed me off and since it was my daily driver for over a year it became an issue for me. This went from Day 1 to day whatever when I traded it.

having said that, there is a mod you can do to remove the restriction in the clutch hydraulic line on the top of the trans which may have considerably helped this issue but I never got around to doing it. They say its there to soften the hit to the driveline when you dump the clutch. Had I done the mod I may have felt differently.
Ive not driven an M6 with this mod done.

Hard accelleration with the M6 I sometimes felt "is that all this thing has" I dont feel that way with my 1320 Maybe I was too soon removed from my HC and the difference was magnified so the 392 M6 felt sloooooow.
Maybe now Im just used to the slower 392 overall and think its fast. (I drive a 4cyl civic Si now as a daily so any 392 will feel like a rocket.)
Maybe the 3.09 with the A8 is making the difference. Maybe if I put in a 3.90 rear in the T/A It would have cured me of feeling that way.

M6 got slightly better MPG by about +1 MPG

If I were to do it all again,
I think a HC needs an A8 to take full advantage of the Motor. Ive owned an A8 HC and was never dissapointed. Ive driven M6 HCs and been underwhelmed with 1st gear and the general feel of it being a lot slower than the A8. Ive seen a bunch of people break the trans/driveline on the earlier cars when racing them. YMMV

Now that my Challenger isnt a daily driver I might reconsider an M6 and do the shifter and the clutch line Mod, maybe the gears and call it a day. maybe

Otherwise Im still an A8 guy for this car and I do like to be faster when I go to the track.

Prob doesnt help your decision but those are my impressions after owning both

 

[68coronet]

What about the fact that the M6 doesn't come equipped with MDS? Is MDS not an issue for you A8 owners? I hate it myself, and I don't feel like I should have to lose my warranty to get rid of it. 5.7 trucks come with a MDS defeat feature, as should the Challenger/Charger. Just my opinion...

 

[Hunter]

No MDS on my 16 or 19 Hellcat.
Had it on my 15 R/T.
Did not have it on my 16 392 Scat

 

[Slowpoke387]

No MDS comes on any hellcat.

 

[JRabq]

This is one of those there-is-no-right-answer questions. It depends.
The proof is on paper, for max acceleration, the A8 wins. And in traffic, yea the A8 gives your left leg a break (but who really needs a break unless you have a leg problem).
In terms of which gives more enjoyment, that's pure opinion.
The first HC I drove was my wife's Charger A8. An eyeopening experience no doubt. I drive it intermittently and it is a monster or tame depending on my mood. I have used paddles in old CamaroSS and some with her A8. Think with more time I might like paddles more, but tend to drive in auto. It goes hot when you ask, but from ptA to ptB, even in a HC your mind can wander to work, politics, etc. and mute the driving experience.
With the M6 in my ChallengerHC, you are always involved. Every shift, timing and quality, depends on me. Some shifts great, some not so great, either way its all on me. A perfect manual shift, up or down, is actually smoother than auto and very satisfying. It may not be as fast as the A8, but on Continental ECS 305's on the rear, you can still spin em at will thru 1st. I'm not bored yet. With used prices as they are, I might own a Redeye by now, but no M6. So I'll keep what I got, happy as a freakin clam.

 

[Slowpoke387]

Lots of traffic? A8. You have to really be talking yourself into believing a M is better if youre stuck in traffic a lot. Hard pass, and I come from a motorcycle racing background where shifting is everything. But sitting in traffic is a lot different than that.

 

[Slowpoke387]

This is one of those there-is-no-right-answer questions. It depends.
The proof is on paper, for max acceleration, the A8 wins. And in traffic, yea the A8 gives your left leg a break (but who really needs a break unless you have a leg problem).
In terms of which gives more enjoyment, that's pure opinion.
The first HC I drove was my wife's Charger A8. An eyeopening experience no doubt. I drive it intermittently and it is a monster or tame depending on my mood. I have used paddles in old CamaroSS and some with her A8. Think with more time I might like paddles more, but tend to drive in auto. It goes hot when you ask, but from ptA to ptB, even in a HC your mind can wander to work, politics, etc. and mute the driving experience.
With the M6 in my ChallengerHC, you are always involved. Every shift, timing and quality, depends on me. Some shifts great, some not so great, either way its all on me. A perfect manual shift, up or down, is actually smoother than auto and very satisfying. It may not be as fast as the A8, but on Continental ECS 305's on the rear, you can still spin em at will thru 1st. I'm not bored yet. With used prices as they are, I might own a Redeye by now, but no M6. So I'll keep what I got, happy as a freakin clam.

Think about why M fans are so passionate about them. For me as a racer it’s not the physical action of my left leg or my left hand using a clutch. It’s the connection to the vehicle, the control of the shifts, the connection to the road that shifting yourself provides. I think a huge mistake M fans make is thinking the paddles are the way to drive the A8 when trying to get that ’connected to the road’ shifting experience and so I see these posts a ton. They try the paddles and the result is ‘meh’.
Try a RE (better yet a 3.09 RE) in manual mode and in Track or even Custom (track trans), using the actual shifter, not the paddles. I’ll bet you a beer that your mind wont wander. Much different experience than the paddles. Paddles are kind of useless unless youre doing hard pulls. Using the shifter keeps you extremely connected to the car, acutely aware of what gear youre in, and very in control of where the shifts are and what rpm’s you want. Reminds me of racing my motorcyles which are obviously M. Skip the paddles. In the end for me it’s about the control and connection, not the physical act of stepping on a clutch or moving the shifter. Driving a RE in M (Custom - track trans) using the shifter is another really good way to get that.