Why does a neutral-drive launch hurt your car worse than a manual launch?

[Rampart Crawler]

I heard on another site that you shouldn't launch your automatic car. They didn't say why. I saw a video on this same site of an acura sedan racing, doing an neutral-drive launch several times with no problem.

So, why can you launch a manual car and not an auto?

[Volume_Civics]

Droping on an auto or manual transmission car puts alot of wear on a tranny. It doesnt matter auto or man, (stock)transmissions arent meant to take all that abuse. Do it all you want Its just a matter of time when you see a dude has to push his car across the finish line.

[GScivic7]

Autos are generally weaker than manual trannies. Neutral drops really put a lot of wear on auto trannies.

[Kven]

It really has to do with engagment. Autos are always "connected" to the motor, so the motor is seeing load when you change the gears; revving it just puts more load. In a manual, the transmission is disconnected via the clutch; so when the gears are changed there is no load on the transmission, and in the case of a clutch drop the gears are already set so there is nothing moving(gear-selection-wise).

[meberra]

Wow I Did Not Know This! This friday i will be going to the track to see how my car runs (sence i had I/E/H installed) and this would be my first time doings anything like this with my car. I've been told by a few people i could start in N and drop it to 1-2-3-D4 , and/or start in N and drop it to D4. Now that i know this... i dont think im gonna try to do that. It would really suck to blow my tranny!

[Kven]

just stall your torque converter(leave the car in drive, hold the brakes with your left foot and give it gas until it feels like its starting to pull, then when the light turns green just let go of the brakes and floor it). aftermarket torque converters allow the engine to rev higher before you start feeling it pull.
the 1st-4th gears were put there mainly for engine braking when driving on hills/mountains and emergency braking.

[Rampart Crawler]

I think you are safe going 1-2-3-4(drive), but I didn't know that about launching cars with the brake and gas. That is pretty interesting. I know when my friend had his corsica, he could hardly ever get a chirp out of the tires from doing a neutral-drive launch, and my friend in his tempo doesn't at all. But once, he just nailed the gas at the right time and left two fairly long marks in his car.

EDIT: I read up on auto trannys at howstuffworks.com , so I have all of the answers, now.

Thanks, guys!