umm, you might try a more descriptive title... anyway, I will try to theorize on this subject.
***uming we are talking about drag racing, any given car
can be faster with an automatic versus a regular manual transmission. There are a few basic factors in that like:
-how the auto is set up... upshifts at the optimal rpm? shifts aggressively? usually stock automatics are suck on those two points, and therefore would not be very fast.
-how good the driver is. it's a lot easier to launch an auto consistently than a manual with a clutch, and automatic transmissions don't miss the notches.
-gearing. If you use four gears in a manual car to get to the finish and only two in an auto, then the manual might be allowing you much better use of the power curve than the auto due to the relative closeness of the gears. Of course, the auto will also be shifting fewer times. The benefits here depend on the torque curve, but in the case of a high-power KA-T I would guess the manual setup to be better as a small displacement engine, the power range will most likely be relatively narrow.
So there's not necessarily one answer... now I would
guess that in general if set up properly and built well enough to take the power and abuse, an auto may well be faster in a straight line simply by the virtue of being easier to use. I think a "normal" auto would not be a match for a well-driven 5 speed, other things being equal.
And then there's the consideration of how an automatic sucks the fun out of pursuits that involve more than accelerating in a straight line, which is not what a 240 was primarily meant to do... but that's another topic
