i wanted smg aswell, but everyone told me to go manual, purely fancied having paddles, box is very agrocutrural in manual, and gears are very tight, bit of a pig to drive casually sometime from 1st to 2nd, but when driving spiritedly the box is amazing, litterly have 100% confidence that the box is going to go into the correct gear and not miss.
and as everyone says you feel much more involved in the car with a manual, mike r has always said if they did a CSL in a manual he would have sold peggy by now.