I can't respond to the poll since I am still on the fence
I had been driving MT on street and track for 15+ years before I made the leap to my current DCT E92 M3 5 years ago. I absolutely love the DCT. While I do miss some of the involvement of the 3 pedals, the performance advantage and the other benefits of the DCT are still greater from my point of view. The tighter ratios, extra gear and instant shifts all allow to better exploit the peaky power curve of the S65.
Now on the F8X, the weight advantage of the 6MT will most likely be 70+lbs. Further, the broad power plateau of the S55 does not benefit as much from the tighter ratios provided by the DCT. According to recent articles, the new DCT will use the same ratios as the M5/6 which have much larger spacing compared to the old DCT. The first gear overall ratio will be shorter than on the E9X rendering 1st gear pretty much useless (especially considering the extra torque of the S55). It just seems that the new DCT is not as optimized towards extracting max performance compared to the previous one.
Now there is still the advantage of the instantaneous shifts and the ability to keep both hands on the wheel at the track.
I am eager to see the the official gearbox and final drive ratios for both 6MT and DCT and their respective performance numbers.
Decisions, decsions...
