Originally Posted by wfge
what is the point\purpose of a reverse pattern automatic?
The reverse pattern is no more than a safty feature to preventing you from going to nutural by accident, due to the fact that you have to pull the lever/extra handle on some turbo 400 shifters to change the gear, also to go to nutural.
On Vince's point (quicker) there's not much difference in weight with a PG and a 5 speed with all the extra heavy bell housing and heavy fly wheels with small inch motors etc..
The PG will 60' better in most cases due to the torque producing converter and is a lot more consistent. I personally run an electric shifter valve body tied to the MSD 2 step and never miss a shift and yes i have to push the trans brake button to back up, but that not a big deal.
Other point on a 5 speed you're smacking the driveline 5 times each pass, while with a PG with transbrake you're only smacking it 1 time leaving the line.
JMO
Zip.