Well, I dunno nuffin' from nuffin', but...
The current non race, fastest lap in a production car for the Nuremburgring* is held by a Porsche 996 GT2 at 7 min 46 sec. Funny that that car gets it's power to the ground via a 6 speed manual transmission. The same car with TipTronic manumatic does the 'Ring about 10 to 12 seconds slower, IIRC (the double clutch manumatic not yet released for production, but due this year, may change this result in the 997 GT2).
And...
The all time best for the track was set in 1975 by Niki Lauda driving for Ferrari in a 312 T. He did it in his qualifying lap for the German Grand Prix at 6:58.6. Clay Regazonni has the official fastest lap of 7:06.4, set during the race the next day - times must be set during a race to be 'official' - while in his Ferrari 312 T. Care to guess what the trannies were in those? 5 speed manuals...
Any good driver will always out perform an automatic given the same car with a row-yer-own shift.
Period.
Paragraph.
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*The Nuremburgring is the preferred track at which most manufacturers benchmark and tune their vehicles.