Recently I've been modding this certain PC game I've been playing, Test Drive Unlimited. And as I add cars, I have to edit the physics to match the car's performance. One of the factors I use to gauge if I've gotten the physics correctly is if the 0-100 and top speed figures are about right. Because of this, I've done more research about performance figures in the past 2 weeks than I have in my life.

Now to my point, I've read that 1.5L subcompacts such as the Vios, in automatic trim, reach 100 at about 11.5-12.5 seconds, while 2.0L compacts such as the Altis and Mazda 3 do so in about 10.2-10.5. Fair enough, since the power advantage of compacts are slightly hampered by the weight gain.

However, I've also read that several manual and dual clutch (ehem Focus) 2.0 compacts reach the 0-100 mark in 8.5-9.5 seconds. That's a 2 second difference from their automatic counterparts. Is that really the case? Cuz for higher end cars, the usual difference between a manual and automatic tranny is less than a second.

And most surprisingly, I've read about Honda Jazzes in manual tranny that reach the 100 kph mark in 8.5 seconds, stock. Which puts it faster than or equal to even the TDCi Focus. Any truth to this? And why the 3 second difference from the AT counterpart?