Automatic driven like a manual?

[Yellwaznboy]

Ok check this out, I have this friend who drives an automatic 1996 Prelude VTEC, but he actually shifts his automatic transmission. He'd start the car out at 1, then shift to 2, then 3 then to D. He asked me about my automatic, and I told him it was 1,2,then D with an overdrive button. He told me the overdrive button would be 3rd gear. If I drive on 1, I should shift a bit more than 1 second before I actually want the car to shift, cuz ther'es a delay. But if I have overdrive turned on, after I've shifted to 2, I could keep reving the engine to redline and it will automatically shift itself to 3rd gear, and then after 3rd, i could just put it in D which would be 4th gear. Could you actually drive your car like that? Could someone tell me if that would damage the car or not? He also told me that when ppl drag race, they shouldn't put the car on neutral and let it rev to redline, then drop the clutch or shift to D, he said that tears up the transmission. He said he likes to put it in 1 (still an automatic), and press on the brake on the other foot and floor the pedal. Then when he sees the light is about to turn green, he'll let his foot a little bitoff of the brake and let the car creep forward but not past the starting line. Once the light turn green, he'll let off the brake completely, he said he'll have a better start. But to me, that would just tear the transmission. So if someone could be nice and tell me more about the two things I just typed, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm still new to cars and how racing techniques, so thanks for helping me out. Sorry for the huge long book I just wrote.

[sr20de4evr]

Shifting "manually" in an automatic car that isn't designed to be shifted that way will kill the transmission. That feature is supposed to be used when towing or going up/down steep grades, you should NOT be constantly shifting between them near redline. Neutral dropping an auto (revving in neutral then slamming into drive) is extremely bad for the transmission, just a few of these will royally screw up your tranny. Holding the gas and the brake at the same time will cause your tranny to heat up until you let off the brake. As long as you don't do it for more than a couple seconds it shouldn't do much damage, but much more than that could start to wear on it pretty badly.

"Neutral dropping" a manual car is also hard on the drivetrain, mainly the clutch, but for completely different reasons than an auto. Other than wearing your clutch down pretty badly it won't do much damage unless you do it at every stop light.