[Stuart]

I'd like to find a 1971 Catalina with a three speed some day. It was the last year a manual transmission was available in the full size Pontiacs; it was only available for the first half of the model year, and they only built a handful of them (I forget the exact numbers, but I think it was only something like 15 or 20.)

[Lightfoot]

My older brother and I marveled at a '66 Buick LeSabre with factory 3-on-the-tree at a car show in 1999.

Originally Posted by Stuart

I'd like to find a 1971 Catalina with a three speed some day. It was the last year a manual transmission was available in the full size Pontiacs; it was only available for the first half of the model year, and they only built a handful of them (I forget the exact numbers, but I think it was only something like 15 or 20.)

After seeing the '66 LeSabre mentioned above, my brother did some researching and found out about 1971 being the final year of availability for the column 3-speed in a full size Buick. A few years later, he found one in Montana. It was a LeSabre 4-door sedan (predictably), with 350 2BBL, no A/C. He kept it for about five years and sold it locally. I'd venture to say it is probably still in northern New England somewhere.

Production number is reputed to be around 100 but I don't know if anyone knows for sure.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Lightfoot

After seeing the '66 LeSabre mentioned above, my brother did some researching and found out about 1971 being the final year of availability for the column 3-speed in a full size Buick. A few years later, he found one in Montana. It was a LeSabre 4-door sedan (predictably), with 350 2BBL, no A/C. He kept it for about five years and sold it locally. I'd venture to say it is probably still in northern New England somewhere.

Production number is reputed to be around 100 but I don't know if anyone knows for sure.

I looked up the numbers for three speed manual big Pontiacs in 1971:
2 Grand Villes
4 Bonnevilles
6 Catalina Broughams
30 Catalina Safaris
144 Catalinas

So, I was off on the amount of stick Catalinas earlier but it was still a pretty small number.