Read up on what a Converter is.

www.howstuffworks.com

is a great place.

 

Something about big fans blowing on little fans and engines turning faster than trannys...If I were to try to explain it, we'd both be totally confused. Check out Cory's link. As I recall, it has a pretty good explanation. Also, PI or Art Car or one of those big names has an excellent explanation on their web site. Don't recall which one.

Also, go to Google.com and do a search on "Torque Multiplication" for some good sites.

 

basically, in an automatic car, you have what is called a stall converter or torque converter ( same thing ) the smaller the stall is in diameter physically, the higher you can raise the RPMS while powerbraking (in drag racing, in an auto, you hold the brake, and apply the gas to raise RPMs) TC's have a torque multiplier...i believe it multiplies torque by 1.8 in a stock LT1. so take your engine torque at that RPM multiply by 1.8 and you have your new launch torque..this torque is not constant though...you wont see this large amount throught the powerband.


now in regards to street applications, the way i see it, the Auto will have the advantage from the dig, because 1 its consistant, 2 itll get out of the hole good, 3 smallllllll chance of driver error.

im not sure where i saw the graph, but it showed the acceleration of a 5spd car and automatic 4spd car at a track, the 5spd car spent ~.8 seconds (3shifts) with little to no acceleration between gears, the automatic was mostly constant and only used .2 seconds where acceleration was out of the norm. but i like to drive a 5/6 spd cause it doesnt get boring, but ill be damned if i miss the days of tampa 5pm rush hour with it...thank god for automatic on that aspect.