Debated over this for a while. The Camaro comes with an Aisin LY6 6-speed with the “MV5” designation. That box has some interesting ratios. From 1st to 6th gear: 4.48 / 2.58 / 1.63 / 1.19 / 1 / 0.75
1st and 2nd are super short, 3rd has a big drop and is very long, then 4th is very short again. I can think of arguments for and against this, depending on the specific scenario/track.
The base model Cadillac CTS uses the same engine, and has a manual gearbox option – that transmission is the MV7, and it has much more evenly-spaced ratios: 4.16 / 2.51 / 1.69 / 1.27 / 1 / 0.75
To visualize the differences between the two transmission, I graphed them:
I decided to go for the MV7. Turns out this trans is rather rare – likely because the base model CTS is rarely chosen with a manual – but I finally found one with low miles in Texas and had it shipped over. $1200 including freight:
