Automatic variants being faster that their manual counterparts isn’t uncommon these days, but according to Road And Track that wasn’t the case back in the 70s.

Back in 1970, Dodge debuted the third generation Plymouth Barracuda and instead of basing it off of the Valiant the Challenger's platform was used instead. This resulted in a vehicle with better visibility, durability, safety, and room for up to six passengers. Powering the Cuda was a 426 HEMI V8, but not many people chose it over the more affordable 440.

In an episode of Jay Leno's Garage, Richard Carpenter brought in his original and unrestored Cuda for a joy ride. The Plymouth Barracuda was offered with a manual gearbox or an automatic transmission and Carpenter decided to go with the automatic. This wasn’t because he couldn’t drive manual, the automatic variant was simply quicker.

Unfortunately, Dodge didn’t sell many units and production of the Barracuda ended in 1974. Luckily for us, the automaker is rumored to be bringing it back as a Challenger-based convertible and like its predecessor, the automatic variant may very well be quicker than its manual sibling.

That's generally a given since automatic transmission changes gears faster than the average human. I can understand if manual was faster in the hay days of automatic transmission development,but technology has advanced so much since the 70s.

I don't even understand how this is a discussion. Look at the Challenger Hellcats, the manual version is two tenths slower than the automatic. For a very long time, it's been this way. Like stated above, the automatic transmissions of today can shift faster then ANY human.

Average human takes between 0.5-1 second for a shift.
Automatics can be as low as 8ms (DSG Veyron) or on a more average level ~200-250ms ?

E46 M3s were 0.33 of a second with the SMGs I believe

It's a given. Running is faster than jogging. With how long we've been exposed to automatics that are faster than manuals and the volume of these which is 90% of the market, it's quite obvious at this point, it's expected. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 30 years.

Tell us something we don't know.