After Darren took me out in Adrian's car I would definitely say the auto felt quicker, primarily because of the shorter gear ratios and the extra gear. It gave the perception of being faster, whether it actually was I don't know.
Manual vs auto is a personal thing and it's best to try both out. Some love the auto others the manual. For me the there was too much delay in the auto gear change, even with paddles, it kept changing too early and I felt I was missing out on some of the driver involvement, so went with manual.