Pinging again... anyone want to take 10 minutes and try this? Just the 40 to 60 mph in 6th gear result would be interesting with a 29.2 or newer automatic car... (obviously use the manual mode to keep it in 6th, otherwise it will downshift under load).
It's one thing to yell about it, but it's another thing to make some attempts to quantify the problem until we get a clear dyno result.
If it's something like 200 lb-ft versus 300 lb-ft available at 1,400 rpm, there should be a pretty big difference in the timings.