You will still have a ball. Your car won't be as fast as a similar car with manual, but there will be plenty of faster cars anyway. The driver is really what makes the difference anyway. In my run group there were 2 E36 M3s, I was faster than one of them and the other was faster than me. Then my instructor took a few laps in my car and handily spanked the fast M3. You won't be able to talk about what gears you were in at what point but you will still have a great time. And while I am no one of the people who used to flame lk when he was on his "e46 sucks" kick, I am baffled by his current automatic advocacy. In any case, please do not believe that a steptronic is faster on a RACETRACK than a manual. I think (and really hope) that he is joking, but in any event, please do not go believing that.