Jesus...My intarwebs go down for two days and I come back and a huge-ass flame war has started and a self-proclaimed "BMW slut" has called my dad a cock.
SRSLY WTF has happened to this thread?
Here's the thing...just because it's a sequential manual doesn't make the driver a cock. I can guarantee one thing, my dad won't be flying around corners shouting, "DOOD, THIS GEARBOX MAKES ME DRIVE AND LOOK LIKE MICHAEL SCHUMACHER!" It will never happen, ever.
As a member of the small minority of people who have ridden in one of these cars, or driven one (or even driven other SMG, DSG cars like our A3), or have talked with an owner at length about this subject (my dad of course, but also a friend of his who's owned a 355 F1, 2 360 F1s, a Maserati Coupe Cambiocorsa, a 430 F1 and a 599GTB and other owners of similar motors) I can honestly say that the general consensus is that the driver doesn't feel any loss of involvement because he's not rowing gears. My dad has called the 430 more involving than the 550 was because of the handling and torque band of the car, even though the 550 was much more mechanical and was a manual. I know everyone wants to debate whether or not my dad is a loser for buying a car with an F1 gearbox, but it was his decision and he chose what he wanted for a myriad of different reasons, most of which I have enumerated in previous posts. Calling him a loser is a complete cop out anyways as he worked hard for the cash that he used to buy the car. To the haters, I say this: once you have worked hard enough for long enough to accrue three kids' college tuition, buy a house, run a successful business and buy a ferrari; be my guest and talk shit about your choice compared to his. Otherwise, it just makes you look stupid to run your mouth off about the fruits of other people's labors.