This "it's an auto" nonsense is getting quite old. With the current times for new SLK V-6's posting a .1 second better 0-60 times with a stick over the autoshift this view has no backing.

Only reason I have ever heard that made an ounce of sense of one over the other was the fact the owner preferred the "feel" of the stick to the auto. I 100% agree to that but since this car (SRT-6) doesn't have the option of a pure stick there's no rational reasoning for custom fabbing a manual transmission to the car.

So if your looking at straight performance, the guy with the manual can "feel" his car all day long but this will not change the fact that the guy with the autostick will walk away the winner every time given that the autostick guy used his mod budget on some real power mods while the manual guy got his "stick"...