I believe yall are talkin about two different things. I think he was talkin about in terms of shifting and he's right. You cannot outshift an automatic. You I believe are talking about over all, with a good clutch, very little to no slippage. In that comparison, the manual trans will be faster overall, IMO. Either way, it's a debate that has raged since the beginning of time and going on for three pages isn't helping the OP's original question.