4spd compared to auto driving experience

[Slap Stick]

For the purists I would think the manual is the way to go. The feel and the sounds of the synchros spinning up and the gear whine of the old transmissions give a different driving experience.
Newer manual transmissions are almost silent.

 

[dadsbee]

My daughter commented, my the last trip out to her place, that she was trying to figure out WTH was coming up the road. She knew it wasn't a tractor, too sweet a sound!

 

[funknut]

When I bought my Charger I was dead set on doing a manual conversion, because I’ve always driven stick cars.

I spent some time driving it with the manual valve body and I really like it. Enough that I’ve at least delayed the conversion, maybe I’ll get to the point where I like it enough to keep it.

You’re still engaged in the driving experience, with the right valve body you get really firm up shifts, and a really strong launch with the right converter.

The only thing that I can’t shake is that I want overdrive for highway cruising. Other than that, I really am growing to like it more than I ever thought I would.

 

[Kern Dog]

I have been an automatic guy most of my life. I did convert a '76 Camaro to a Saginaw 4 speed and the car was fun with it. I am a better driver with fewer distractions but the experience is more fun with the manual trans. I converted a Duster to a 4 speed too. I tried 3 different ones including the overdrive. That one sucked for performance due to the sharp drop between 1st and second gear.
For about a year, I have been contemplating the Tremec 5 speed conversion for "Ginger".

 

[Chargered]

Driving my car with the auto isn't exactly a snooze fest. It's harder work by far than my 6spd manual WRX STI. I rarely use the kickdown, preferring to change down manually. I also shift manually through 1st and 2nd off the lights, to allow it to rev out. This is where I feel the auto has the most advantage, and that's one of my concerns with the 4 spd - are they still fast away from the traffic lights? I swear my Satellite is faster than the STI to 40 or 50 mph, and I wouldn't want to lose that. I have only 2 other concerns - the power steering is so light I'm worried I'd be all over the road while trying to change gear, and would I need to have the seat closer to be able to push the clutch in? Sounds stupid I know, but with autos I always have the seat a little further back and the Satellite already has that big old wheel sticking up in my face, even with the seat back a bit, so I wouldn't want to be any closer. Actually I think I need a test drive of something similar before I decide.

Mine is manual. Its fun at times but it also can be a pain in the ***. And it does seem slow from a stop light. First gear is pretty short and then your taking time to shift again into 2nd. Meanwhile all the new cars are flying by you.

 

[SteveSS]

Our '71 Challenger is a 4 speed. The pistol grip is cool and everything but I'm wondering was the driving experience that raw back in the day? Manual steering, manual brakes, I would hate it as a daily driver. The '97 Camaro has a 6 speed and I love it. For traffic between Colorado Springs and Denver, the automatic is the only way to go.

 

[mopar 3 B]

I have one of each and neither **** themselves and with enough power you don't need that kick down thing everyone talks about adjusting either.

 

[biomedtechguy]

Manual steering, manual brakes...

I have been dealing with both since I brought my Roadrunner home. It's in the shop, right now, getting 4 wheel 6 piston Wilwood disc brakes and the Wilwood master cylinder. It was my decision to keep the manual brakes because I prefer the level of control and feedback.
Now the Wraptor serpentine belt and accessory system does include a power steering pump and hoses, and while parallel parking in a tight space in South Louisiana and Mississippi in the summer was likely to be the cause of death, MY cause of death, manual steering was great other than when I was not or hardly moving, and I have added power steering via the Wraptor's GM 2 style power steering pump and a Borgeson power steering box

 

[BDF6]

I had thought about going to a 5 speed in mine until a road trip to SoCal CHANGED my mind permanently.
100*+ temps, stop & go traffic on a slight uphill grade for 30 miles. It took 3 1/2 HOURS to go that 30 miles!
I could not have and would not ever want to do that in a manually shifted Muscle Machine.
It's horrible enough in a nice new car.
Besides, I just cruise around a lot and there isn't much shifting going on at speed...
All my other vehicles are manual shift and I enjoy the relief from it. I live up on a mountain and get plenty of sporty shifts in with a different ride.
BUT: You need to be realistic about what you really want to do with and in your car. Make a list of pros & cons.
Good luck, it will be a nice ride either way!

 

[biomedtechguy]

stop & go traffic on a slight uphill grade for 30 miles.

Yeah, I don't have any "hills" in the swamp, but that is a valid point.
I have a LOT of stop and go traffic at Cruisin the Coast, and my left knee suffers for that, but the cheering spectators that line Beach Blvd make it all worthwhile.

 

[myk r sanchez]

Mine is manual. Its fun at times but it also can be a pain in the ***. And it does seem slow from a stop light. First gear is pretty short and then your taking time to shift again into 2nd. Meanwhile all the new cars are flying by you.

That's gonna happen to you whether you have an auto or a manual in these old crates. Them Camry's sure are quick...

 

[moparedtn]

I grew up learning how to drive on stick cars (I wonder how much of that is evident
nowadays with teens?). Always had a knack for them and had ample opportunity to drive
just about anything over the decades - and probably can still climb into about any vehicle
and drive it out of instinct.
You either have that in you or you don't, I suppose. You can teach most folks how to drive
a stick, but only so many actually have the mechanical empathy or whatever to really be
any good at it naturally....
The rest of 'em used to eat clutches, I reckon.

I went through a bunch of years where I had no Mopar AND no stick cars around, though.
From around 2000 to 2010, everything was an auto (usually company pickups or some such)
and I had sold my last Mopar in a bind years before.
Family obligations, all that jazz....

SO, when I decided (after all that was over and all the cancer/health crap had begun in my life)
that I was going to get one....last.....Mopar (I was understandably morbid in my humor in those days),
the first determination of which one to get was FOUR SPEED.
Mandatory.
Short of someone waving a 426 hemi auto under my nose for $5k, I was going to pick out a 4 speed,
come hell or high water.
It was going to be a b-body (no offense to any others, I just "fit" in these better), it was going to be a
big block of some sort but most importantly, it was going to be a stick car.
Those criteria are my "roots" in this hobby. All my Mopars over the years share those attributes (short
of one original owner '68 Bee auto that was such a steal, I couldn't turn it down).

The significance of what I chose for my "last" Mopar was further magnified (beyond my history as described
above) by the fact that at the time (2010), I had issues with rudimentary daily life - walking, standing,
things like that had been robbed of me by the cancer, so thinking "I gotta have another Mopar - 4 SPEED!"
was downright ludicrous/insane, given the situation....
but I had decreed it so in my heart, so that is where I headed off towards, despite the usual consultations
of those around me at the time.
The rest of the story, you all know already. GTX found and procured, cancer returned, I "died" a few more
times in the process, GTX got all fixed up during recoveries from whatever procedures/surgeries, etc.
BUT....
I GOT MY DAMN 4 SPEED.
Manual brakes and steering, too - and I drive it as often as I can and ALWAYS against the advice and wishes
of the medical folks.
My wife used to express her concerns about it, too.
She's learned over the years, though.....

All thanks to God and my wife, still here, still banging gears.

 

[Runner71]

The manual doesnt feel as smooth as the auto cars. Love my 4speed and the sound when you drive, its build as street car with alot of torque so im struggling not do any burnouts its so easy to just release the clutch to fast and hit the gas and its on - but when in drive or rides my father in law autocars its just smooth even if i drive the manual smooth it cannot be compered!

 

[myk r sanchez]

Eh. Riding my 21 speed bicycle with paddle shifters is more engaging than my auto-Charger. I'll take smooth when they're lowering my casket into the ground...

 

[66 Sat]

The funny thing is a lot of the magazines back in day said they preferred the auto over the manual. Car and Driver's test of the 68 hemi Charger reckons "the automatic is the plan", Hi Performance magazine reckoned the 4spd in the 71 340 Cuda was too hard to shift at high rpm, and Motor Trend preferred the auto to the manual when they tested 3 different 1970 Cudas, one of the reasons being the seating position needed to work the manual shift meant you were too close to the steering wheel.
There's definitely something about a 4 spd that grabs my attention when I'm browsing cars for sale, and it's clear the consensus is 4 spd is more fun, but more effort too, especially if you are getting long in the tooth.

 

[cosgig]

My GTX was a column shifted auto, I had it for 25 years and never minded it. But my Roadrunner is a pistol grip stick, and it’s a ball to drive. I love that whine of the gears, and rowing through them. I can’t imagine this car not being a stick. My 16 year old son has driven it twice now, and is really getting the hang of driving it. He’s driven his grandmas stick shifted Jeep, but an old Roadrunner with a pistol grip is a whole different beast. He loves it, I love it, and that’s all I got to say about that!

 

[moparedtn]

The funny thing is a lot of the magazines back in day said they preferred the auto over the manual. Car and Driver's test of the 68 hemi Charger reckons "the automatic is the plan", Hi Performance magazine reckoned the 4spd in the 71 340 Cuda was too hard to shift at high rpm, and Motor Trend preferred the auto to the manual when they tested 3 different 1970 Cudas, one of the reasons being the seating position needed to work the manual shift meant you were too close to the steering wheel.
There's definitely something about a 4 spd that grabs my attention when I'm browsing cars for sale, and it's clear the consensus is 4 spd is more fun, but more effort too, especially if you are getting long in the tooth.

The Torqueflite 727 was noted in early 60's magazines of the day as being the first automatic to actually
be able to beat a 4 speed in the quarter mile. It was (and some say, still is) the gold standard of automatics.
That said.....gimme a stick any day.

 

[Dajkzo]

I enjoy my 4 speed. If I was still into drag racing I would have gone for an auto. Been there, done that with a SBC in a 67 camaro. And then I got serious and found a big block mopar I have my car setup for road handling and it's fun on the secondary roads. I will say the A833 is way nicer than the Munci M21

 

[matthon]

4 spd is more fun, but more effort too

More fun, yes. I drive it every chance I get. My fondest memory is the kid in the back seat trying to get some of her ice cream cone and her idiot father hitting the throttle at each attempt, never laughed so hard.

More effort, I disagree. It's no big deal, it actually makes it less effort for me as my car has manual steering, and I use the clutch to rock the car back and forth when backing up/turning around.

Not as fast as an auto, most likely, don't care, it's not how fast you go but how you go fast.

 

[Slap Stick]

The Ramchargers race team used autos because they were quicker and more consistent with no missed shifts.