Johnny and 97cata sum the 1.8 up totally
A little jerky in different drive select modes and sometimes around town dependant on situation. Remember the car can't see the road so will change gear on revs. With a manual you choose thus meaning if traffic only moved a few feet you on the manual would stay in 1 gear. The S Tronic at this point could have jumped 2 gears. Driving the S Tronic I'm sure you can appreciate what I'm saying.
Again the car really does keep pulling! It's not neck snapping by any stretch but once in the higher revs it is a smile maker
oh and the exhaust rasp is cool too
Yes, with the box in Drive and Drive select in comfort, auto, or Eco the changes are very smooth, almost in noticeable. But Dynamic with the Box in Sport you can feel them, and to be honest I would be disappointed if it was any different, because that's the idea!
This is the reason why we have drive select, Eco is attempting to give you the most fuel economy making the throttle response slower, changing gear at the most economic time, and giving you "Coasting" when power is not needed.
Comfort gives you slower gear changes to smooth out the change, average throttle response, and engine braking.
Dynamic throws economy and comfort out of the window giving you the best performance, quicker gear changes, snappier throttle response, revs are held longer, throttle blips on the down change to match engine revs, this is all because it's expecting you to be driving it like you stole it
In dynamic driving it hard the up changes are still smooth and the power delivery is very linear, so the sensation of acceleration is not as dramatic as a manual because the jerkyness of changing gear is not there even though you are just as quick.
My cousin recently took me out in his Bentley Continental GT Speed 600+ BHP W12, mega fast with an S-Tronic style gearbox, the characteristics of the box are exactly the same, even the same layout with the weird back to front + and - when changing manually with the stick. Obviously a VAG thing
