I opted for the Auto and love it! Whether anybody wants to admit it or not, not many people are good at racing with a stick car. Putting slicks on a stick car and dumping the clutch to launch is the easy way out. But has been proving to break axles and tranny's on the Mach's. Mastering the technique of launching with the stick on street tires working the clutch is pure art work. The stick will be faster as long as it has a decent driver behind the wheel. But most of the time on the street, street tires, the auto will win. Some people will complain about the "fun factor" with the stick. Well you can have the same fun with the auto if you shift it manually. I don't regrett getting the auto one bit.
