It may be an age thing. I'm 51, and I'm completely over manual transmissions. I have a 3-speed manual in my 64 C10, but when time and funding allows, I'm going to change it over to a TH400.

 

I can see the fun of a manual for some cars but I don't get bored with my auto either. A 3600 converter is enough to make it fun.

As far as autox, you shouldn't be shifting except from 1st to 2nd as soon in the run as you can. The exception being if the lot is ridiculously small and tight requiring you to be at a severely low speed to need first gear again.

I have my 4l60e set to where I can manually shift it or let it shift itself, so it's still plenty fun even on the curvy backroads.

I could see a manual being valuable on a real road course.

 

it's a whole different level of being connected to and in control of your car.
if you get it, you get it.. if you don't, you don't.

 

ding ding ding

 

Cuz you can't do this in a automatic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qf1bHpsPPM#t=19

 

I like shifting my 4 speed at the track , every gear change the back of the car swings left and right ,sometimes i keep the shifter tight as it wants to escape out especially in 2nd gear , sometimes you miss a shift , for sure there is plenty to do while driving ... still have to lear the powershift... but is fun... never drove auto at the track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9irtaRispI&list=UUUj9GUVdaz-6W0gv8nON7zQ

 

2 words. Side Step!

 

http://classracer.com/classforum/showthread.php?t=53582.
Click on the video. About 2 minutes into the video is where it starts. This is Super Stock/K class eliminations with a bunch of little 283 motored Chevy II's. Man I love them screaming little small blocks at 10,000 rpm. Now in this scenario a manual trans is fun. On the street IMO it's too much work and old technology that belongs with flathead engines. Each to their own though.

 

Thanks a lot. Made me late for work watching this one. Awesome video.

 

I've always had manual transmissions in my cars. Yep, sometimes they can be a pain such as in stop and go traffic. I look at it as I am driving the car and making the decisions with steering, throttle, brake AND the selection of gears. I don't like the car deciding what gear it should be in. My Chevelle has a powerglide in it and if I ever decide to change it I'd probably install a 200r4 to keep it an auto. I sure have thought how much fun it would be to row a 5 speed with the 283 warmed up though.

 

I don't drive the 4sp car every day, but I like to hit the backroads, curves and straights and put the car through the routine. I use the tranny to suck into a curve and use the tranny to roll out of it. A manual transmission can save quite a bit of brake wear. The bottom line for me is expressed in these words: Chirp, Chirp, Chirp. Pure-D-fun.

 

i'm definitely a manual guy. started at about 8 on the farm. However the most fun i have had with an automatic was when i had my 09 Challenger SRT8. 425HP makes up the fun.

 

For a street car driven only occasionally, I am happy I converted my Chevy II to a Muncie. I enjoy it. For a daily driver, or weekend drag racer? No way! Give me an automatic. I can't run a consistant pass on street tires to save my life with the 4-speed. Chalk it up to inexperience, but it was much easier for me to lauch consistantly on street tires with an auto.

 

I'm not so sure its an age thing. My Chevelle is a 4 speed and I would never consider an automatic in a muscle car. There is nothing like rowing a big block through the gears. Can't duplicate that with an automatic. I'm 57 and last summer bought a brand new Tacoma truck. Its a manual 5 speed. Now I don't have to drive in heavy city traffic very often and that can make a difference. In my younger days I had nothing but manual trans cars and trucks. When I was 16 I had a 65 Impala SS that was an automatic but my next seven vehicles were manuals. Which took me to about the age of thirty before I bought an automatic car. Several were brand new. Muscle/Sports/Economy and sometimes Pickups should be manual. Luxury and run of the mill daily drivers should be automatics. My wifes daily driver is a 2012 Regal GS. That car is available with a manual transmission. Now my wife would never drive a manual and I don't blame her but if it were my daily driver it would definately be a stick.:yes:

 

LOL... My wife's daily is an 2011 Regal Turbo. I tried to talk her into the stick for the times when I borrowed it, but she wouldn't go for it. She had owned two manual trans daily driver cars when she was college age, and she's over it. Especially after having to drive them in traffic on the parkway in Pittsburgh at rush hour everyday. She thought I was nuts for pulling the auto from my Nova and installing the Muncie.

 

Well my wife works in downtown Pittsburgh and drives into town about 90% of the time but that really isn't the reason she has the auto. She has always had auto cars. When we were first married I had a little econobox with a stick and she would drive that sometimes but hasn't driven one since and probably never will. I do have to say that the Regal has plenty of get up and go with the automatic. Think it might even be faster than the Chevelle.

 

This has nothing to do with the fun part of driving but how many times have you had to pop start your car when the battery was weak or the starter went south? I've done it more times than I can think of over the past 34 years of driving. Manual transmissions do have their good points.

Edit... I just remembered the time I drove through a huge puddle in my 87 Acura Integra and killed the car. Instead of leaving it in the middle of the road I just cranked the starter in gear to move it to the side. Yeah, I know the newer cars have a clutch switch that won't allow that (my WRX does anyway). At least I was almost home and could walk it. I came back after letting it dry out for a while and she fired right up.

 

My Chevelle is a fun car not a daily driver. I would not have an automatic in a 60's muscle car. That is my feeling and I don't feel the need to defend it. When I see threads like this, I think guys are trying to convince themselves they are happy with what they have and are trying to find more reasons to convince themselves.

 

My Chevelle is a fun car not a daily driver. I would not have an automatic in a 60's muscle car. That is my feeling and I don't feel the need to defend it. When I see threads like this, I think guys are trying to convince themselves they are happy with what they have and are trying to find more reasons to convince themselves.

Nope and Nope...

There was NOTHING to defend, just wondering WHY people think its more "fun"... Not just for a "fun car"...


I agree that in a Classic "Musclecar", the manual is better (just fits the image, because High Performance cars often came that way, and at least for Chevys, the Powerglide was crappy for performance (not for race cars, but stock street driven ones)...


My '70 is modified (427 small Block, lowered, big tires all around), and I get amused when people think that there's something wrong because its not a manual transmission... No convincing needed, I AM quite happy with the automatic (I wish it was Overdrive, but still an auto). I don't need to be convinced that a manual trans makes my car better, because I know its not true...

Its a VERY fun car,
it doesn't need a clutch-drop/side-step to smoke the tires...
The transmission shifts immediately at almost any speed (left in drive, it shifts about 2000 - 2500 RPMs or so, I bought it that way).
I am in control, and totally connected, and the only time I lack the control of a manual is on the downshift (because I can't modulate the clutch, and let it downshift more smoothly), but that has little to do with "fun" aside from maybe a track day.
I do downshift all the time, instead of using the brakes. Its fine for use where 95% of you would probably ever take your car...
And it goes chirp-chirp quite easily, without the need to dump the clutch...

I enjoy a manual transmission a lot more then an automatic. The feel you get behind the wheel and of course the sound when rowing through the gears is second to none. But I do like the appeal of having an automatic in the case where I dont want to worry about shifting and just put the thing in drive and go, whether there is traffic or not.

But that sound of rowing through the gears, CAN be replicated with an automatic trans (most anyway).

My very first Chevelle in high school was an automatic. I wanted a manual so bad... I would manually shift the trans, but I would let off the throttle right before I shifted, and I would usually pop the car into neutral at a stoplight (no brakelights), and in or out of gear, the idle change wasn't noticable (no clunking either)... Honest truth, one day a few classmates walked over, and when they looked in, they asked when I had put in the automatic, because it always sounded like a manual (they were gearheads too, so they knew the difference)...

Conversely when I bought my second Chevelle, with a Muncie 4-speed and a Hurst shifter, I would shift so fast (didn't let off the gas at all) on nearly every shift (I was in high school) that many people thought I had an automatic with a shift-kit... After fragging the Muncie (it took several months of beating though), I finally mellowed out a bit, and shifted normally unless i was playing around...

I still usually shift that way, manually shifting my auto 90% of the time...

 

I've had several manual transmission cars, included a 5.0/5-speed Mustang, which I loved. But I'm over it With big cubic inches and big torque, an automatic suits me just fine!

To each his own...that's why they sell both.

 

Our local track saw the need to satisfy the manual transmission drivers and started a DOT tire class for them on Wednesday nights. Within a few months it had grown into the second largest class. Unfortunately there are rarely any 60's era cars participating.

Steve R

 

Only extra trans I had when I put me chevelle together was a th400. The thing drove great but I had to have a four speed for it. After the swap it lurches at slow speeds when second is too low and third almost lugs. Its a pain in stop and go traffic but every time I get in it and drive it I get a sh*$ eating grin on my face. So much so I just installed the clutch pedals and z bar in my 67 el camino to get it prepped for a muncie swap in the not too distance future. Jim

 

Why do you think they call it a "man" pedal?

 

The last manual trans car my parents had was about 3 years before I got my licence. So when I learned to drive, it was on an auto. Once I was able to get my own car, having never driven a manual, I wasn't about to go out and get one.

When I bought my first Chevelle in 1992 it had a TH400. When I bought my second in 1999, if the car had a manual, I would have learned, but the car I bought had a TH400 also.

 

My 70 SS is a 4 speed car, a few years ago I had a medical issue that prevented me from driving the car, after a few months of looking at the car sitting in the garage I bought a whole 700r4 set-up for the car so I could drive it. I hated the car with the auto, now that I could drive it I didn't want to. After 11 months I had another surgery that allowed me to shift again so I put the 4 speed back in and love the car again.
My everyday driver for the last 20 years has been a Z28 convertible with a 6 speed, 275000 miles.

 

A Manual Trans is the way I roll



Eric Davidson dba Crash Enterprises
crash_enterprises@yahoo.com
Pleasant Prairie, WI. 53158
262-942-8882

Dan

 

My 18 year old son put it straight to the point.
"Dad, only old men drive automatics" :secret:
I have two manual trans vehicles, one muncie and one Tremec. You won't see me texting or talking on the cell phone because both vehicles command my attention. :yes:
Now, if I want to set it and forget it, I take wifey's car.

 

Truth about the cell phone deal. I hate talking on the phone at any time and way more while I'm driving. A manual trans is a great excuse to cut calls short - "sorry man gotta go - I need to shift my gears!".

 

I feel in control when my right hand pulls the reverse lock out and I back out, then go to first and let her rip
love my Muncie m20
pure fun, your hand connected to the gear shift and drive train vibrations
oh yeah

 

Preferred a manual since I was a teen.
Learned how to drive in a 53 Chev pickup with 4spd
Grandpa had a 54 Chev pickup with 3/tree

Since 1977, I have only had one automatic vehicle survive from birth to selling the worn out car (97 T-Bird v8)
EVERY other AT equipped vehicle had needed replacement (one 3x) or serious service
before the rest of the car was ready to expire.

Not had this issue with a manual trans in any of the cars/trucks I have had.
Have not even NEEDED to replace a clutch in any of them since 1987.

Shifting in heavy traffic----non issue---stick it in a gear and forget about it.
You're only going 100 feet before you have to stop again.
3rd gear in my 79 Chev PU is good from 0mph to 70mph

in the rest of the cars (sans Ranchero) 2nd and 3rd
Ranchero----1st and 3rd