[71GP76TA]

I have both depending on my mood and what type of driving.

'70 T/A - 4 speed
'67 GP - 4 speed
'70 Z/28 - 4 speed
'63 Corvette - 4 speed
'69 Chevelle SS396 - Automatic
''67 Coupe Deville - Automatic

I guess I like 4 speeds a little more.

[george kujanski]

I drove my Lemans Sprint as my onlytransportation for years back then, never got old, at least here in flatland. A 5 speed mod made it even more fun, i wouldn`t have an auto for a muscle car.

My son has a Mazda 6 sped for a daily and a ws6 TA for a fun car. He only wants to drive manuals.
It boils down to personal preference...manuals for me in a fun car.

George

[nytrainer]

I'd have to side with the manual crowd (even my wife demanded a stick in her GXP) BUT I will say I had great fun in a friend's Ferrari with an automatic (paddle shifters).

[T.Weber]

Me, I'll always take a stick over an automatic. I was raised in the bay area with nothing but hills on the surface streets and you better damn well know how to drive a stick in the bay area. If your vehicle rolls back 3" you're going to bump the car behind you. My commute vehicle was a 65 stick shift Chevy C 10 my 31 mile commute would take me 2 hours on the way home. Move 4 feet, clutch in and stop. move 3 feet, clutch in & stop for 30 miles. My current daily driver is a 2002 PT Cruiser with a stick 231,000 miles and still commuting 60 miles round trip to work & back but I now live in the central valley, hills are nonexistent and traffic is pretty much nonexistent a real cake walk for a commute.
For me a muscle car isn't a muscle car unless it has a stick. But that's just my opinion. My 62 Catalina is a 4 SPD and a blast to drive I wouldn't give my stick up for anything.

[SRR]

A stick car will always be worth more and more desirable that an auto car. I myself could care less if auto or stick. The last stick car I had was an M22, loved that sound and feel of that car.

[1967Tempest]

Originally Posted by Old Blue 66

I may have the chance to buy a super nice car (Im going to leave the car unknown because of who owns it) but its a 4 speed. Ive owned modern day stick cars (many of them) but never one from the glory days.

I guess my questions is this - has anyone ever moved from auto to 4 speed and how did you feel when you made the switch? I guess Im just used to an automatic and a bit afraid of how Ill like it if I were to buy the car.

Thoughts?

BUY IT!!!

Here is how my cars went..

1967 Tempest Coupe Hdtp
326 2 speed AUTO 2.56
Swapped to
400 2 speed AUTO 2.56
swapped to
400 TH350 AUTO 2.56
swapped to
400 4 speed Manual 2.56
swapped to
400 4 speed Manual 3.23
swapped to
400 5 speed Manual 3.23

Manual is better hands down!!

1967 Tempest 4 door wagon
326 2 bbl 2 speed AUTO 2.56
swapped to
326 4bbl 2 speed AUTO 2.56
swapped to
326 4bbl 4 speed Manual 2.56

4 speed wagon that gets 22 mpg consistently on the highway!! Get the 4 speed car and never look back!

[Old Blue 66]

Thanks for all the replies. The more I think about it, the more confident that Ill like it.

As I said before, I like driving a stick. Ive just never owned one in a fun car like this.

[BertMac]

Something I read on the trunk of a car about 35 years ago and it has always stuck with me. It said "I'd Rather Eat Worms Than Drive an Automatic"

[67drake]

Paul,get the stick,or turn in your man card.

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by 67drake

Paul,get the stick,or turn in your man card.

Well I wouldn't want to loose that. Hey is that card worth money like a credit card? Can I buy parts with it?

[Ben M.]

I've driven nothing but automatic older cars. I finally picked up a manual transmission car a few months back and it's a different change. Mostly my foot just gets annoyed at riding that super heavy clutch in traffic. Other than that it's great fun.

[GT182]

My first GTO was a 4speed as this one is now. I would never have an automatic in a GTO of any year. 66 Tempest Custom and 63 GP were daily drivers and I actually didn't miss the 4peeds with them.

The 1st GTO was my 1st car and was a daily driver for the time I had it. Not really a great thing to have in the winter months up north on icy roads. But now days seeing this one is out only on dry roads Spring Summer and Fall, it's the only way to go even with the traffic here in my neck of the burbs.

So I say go for it... you'll have more fun with the 4speed Paul.

[carcrazy]

All my Pontiacs (GTO's) over the last 30 years have been automatics. That being said, I have a preference for manual shift. Just a better experience in my opinion. May do something about it in the near future!

[lust4speed]

I mentioned in another thread a week or so ago of hitting miserable traffic when driving down to the Petersen museum with our club. I didn't really think anything about it except how crappy it was inching along for over an hour in stalled traffic. Got down to the museum and one of our guys was limping walking around the museum. Then it dawned on me - the only one of us in the group with a 4-speed.

My manual has been off the road for awhile and I am really getting the urge to speed up getting it back on the road - even if I'm the next one hobbling around. It's worth it.

[george kujanski]

A few years ago i bought my son a T shirt with a picture of a clutch, brake, and accel pedal on it. The caption read "The MAN pedal".

`nuff said.

George

[geeteeohguy]

I have always preferred 4 speeds. True, distilled essence of musclecar. I passed up a lot of clean GTO's back in the day because they were automatic cars. I ended up buying a '67 GTO convertible with an automatic 30 years back because it was the only decent ragtop GTO I could find, and it was a TH400 and not a 2 speed like the earlier Goats. I still had my 4 speed '65 and '66 GTO's, though. I ended up driving the automatic goat about 90% of the time, because I had a terrible, clogged up commute from Oakland to San Jose in the mid '80's....it was brutal on the clutch leg in my stick cars. Put almost 70,000 miles on the '67 in two years. Still have it to this day, and I have to say, I enjoy the cruise-ability of an auto car with a lazy rear gear. That said, I still have and drive my 4 speed '65, and wouldn't have it any other way. My '67 is the ONLY vehicle I own with an auto trans (everything else is manual,even the 'modern' stuff). If I had to have only one GTO, it would have to be a 4 speed. But, a good automatic is less and less of an issue as I get older and time marches on.

[David Jones]

I got to the point where I really wanted something with an overdrive.....get rid of the GTO automatic I'd had 10+ years or switch it to a later 4 spd auto overdrive, or go nuts and swap in a 5spd manual. I like my car so I went manual. Shifting your own with Pontiac grunt is pretty hard to beat.

[elefantrider]

4 speed is more fun and the locked up drivetrain is better for cornering, hills, etc.

Auto is good for cruising, in-town, and frees up your hand for the ipod or coffee, etc.

Both are good for different reasons.

[Deadhead]

I grew up with manuals for 2 decades. I like both, but I do not like driving a big car with a 4 speed in town for any length of time. It is great in the curves, but I like driving a TH400 like a manual & I love being able to recline in the seat, jam down on the gas and have the 2ndries or the trips cut in when I drop into 2nd with my right arm stretched out across the back of the bench seat. I stick it in 2nd or 1st if I am in hilly/curvy settings and get a nice whine. I may build my next one as a 4 speed, but I would not have my only vintage car be a 4 speed car.

What if something happened to me and I could not use the shifter?! Not going to risk not being able to dump gas into a big Pontiac.

[65WJ]

After reading all the posts the only thing I will ask is how are your knees? Do not know age but as we get older knee replacements are very common. Will you be able to press that clutch pedal for a long time without pain?

I enjoy both, sometimes it depends on how you want to drive on a particular day.

patrick
ps hips go bad as well.