Cars unusually equipped with manual transmission

[OldsDoug]

I had a '69 Olds Cutlass flat-top wagon that was purchased new with a 4-speed. I was the third owner; it's now back with the original owner. It was actually his father's car, it was a father's day present. Last year at a local show I saw a '64 or '65 Buick Wildcat convertible with a four-speed, there's a thread about that on here somewhere... this year at the same show, there was a '67 Cutlass wagon that had a four-speed... unknown whether it was original equipment.

[Caddieman53]

It is my understanding that although 53 was the last year the standard 3 speed was available on Cadillacs, it was ONLY available on the Fleetwood 75 series and not available on the 60 and 62 series (the 61 series had been dropped). A 53 Eldorado was mentioned with a standard 3 speed. I wonder if anybody has seen the build sheet for this car. I suspect that it was modified after it left the factory, but anything is possible. All 53 Eldo's were supposed to have the Hydramatic. Even after the fire mentioned below, Hydramatics that were still in stock were reserved for the Eldorados and 75 series cars that were ordered with the Hydramatic.

By the way, my 53 Coupe is one of those Dynaflow cars. And yes, the owners manual mentions driving with "Dynaflow Drive". After that though, Cadillac always referred to the Dynaflow as "Twin Turbine".

Here's another odd one, how about late 1953 cadillacs built with Buick Dynaflows after the hydramatic plant burned down? There's a 62 series sedan in my area equipped like that. More over, a friend of mine was rummaging through an antique mall and found a 1953 Cadillac owners manual with specific mention of the Dynaflow in it. Cadillac actually updated their owners manuals for the change. He bought it and gave to to the guy who owned the car.

[ericmac]

One of my all time favorite cars was a 1950 Buick Special 4 door "Jetback" with a three on the tree. I really liked rowing through the gears with that one.

Three other unusual cars I have seen but did not own were:

1964 Mercury Maurauder with a 4 on the floor

1973 Mercury Montego 4 door with a strait 6 and 3 on the tree

1964 Checker Marathon Wagon with a 3 on the tree.

Eric

[Rusty_OToole]

It is my understanding that although 53 was the last year the standard 3 speed was available on Cadillacs, it was ONLY available on the Fleetwood 75 series and not available on the 60 and 62 series (the 61 series had been dropped). A 53 Eldorado was mentioned with a standard 3 speed. I wonder if anybody has seen the build sheet for this car. I suspect that it was modified after it left the factory, but anything is possible. All 53 Eldo's were supposed to have the Hydramatic. Even after the fire mentioned below, Hydramatics that were still in stock were reserved for the Eldorados and 75 series cars that were ordered with the Hydramatic.

By the way, my 53 Coupe is one of those Dynaflow cars. And yes, the owners manual mentions driving with "Dynaflow Drive". After that though, Cadillac always referred to the Dynaflow as "Twin Turbine".

Here's another odd one, how about late 1953 cadillacs built with Buick Dynaflows after the hydramatic plant burned down? There's a 62 series sedan in my area equipped like that. More over, a friend of mine was rummaging through an antique mall and found a 1953 Cadillac owners manual with specific mention of the Dynaflow in it. Cadillac actually updated their owners manuals for the change. He bought it and gave to to the guy who owned the car.

There was an article in a car magazine many years ago about a Cadillac convertible with GMC supercharger and manual trans. Supposedly the car was custom built in the GM experimental shops for a man who ran a major GM parts supply company. It was definitely not a catalog model. Only someone with a lot of pull with GM's or Cadillac's top management could get such a favor. This was confirmed by a man who was Cadillac's chief engineer at the time.

[Guest billybird]

I have heard only 4% of 55-57 Thunderbirds had manual trans. Less than that had the overdrive with it.

[OldsDoug]

1964 Mercury Marauder with a 4 on the floor

Eric

Sweet - I _want_!

[John_Maine]

I think 3 speed manuals are for more rare and unusual than 4 speeds. From the late 50's through the early 70's, and in some cases into the 80's, a lot of manufacturers offered a 4 on the floor as an option. I think that's what makes the 3 on the tree so rare - the majority of people bought automatics or upgraded to the 4 speed.

One of my favorite 4 speeds was an acquaintance who had a 64 Fairlane 500, silver with red interior, 289, PS, PB and 4 speed. He was older than my friends and I and as teenagers, we were all agog at that car. My parents had a friend who bought a new '71 Fury wagon with a 3 speed manual and a teacher at my high school had a '64 Chrysler Newport with a 3 on the floor. My uncle sold Chevy's and one time he had a '64 Impala wagon, 327-250 horse with a 3 speed and overdrive. I was somewhat fascinated with it - being 15 at the time. Besides the 327 and overdrive, it had power steering, brakes, windows, seats, air and pretty much every option you could get on a '64 Chev - except tilt wheel which you couldn't get with a column shifter.

[Harold]

When I lived on Staten Island, one local guy had a '63 Chrysler Newport 4-door with a factory 3-speed floor shift and (I think) a 361 V-8. I also saw a '55 Buick Century with a stick being driven by the proverbial little old lady. I was waiting at a bus stop in a hilly area, and she went charging up the street in the Buick in second gear. She could barely see over the wheel!

[TexRiv_63]

My mother factory ordered a minimum cost 74 Plymouth Valiant sedan with a slant six and 3-speed manual, it came with a floor shifter mounted over the rubber mat. It also had radio delete with a blockoff plate. The only option she ordered was power steering! Try to do that today...

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

In about 1963, I owned a 1955 Buick Special convertable with a 3spd colum shift tranny. No power of any kind. Did have heater and radio.

Ben

[OldsDoug]

I've never owned a 3-on-the-tree car... sure would like one!

[DAVE A]

Back in 1980, when I was making the transition from fun cars to family cars I bought a 76 Volare Wagon. It had a 3 on the floor with an overdrive if I remember right. It was the perfect car for me at the time and drove real nice for a wagon. I have never been able to find anything on it to know if it was factory or someone's conversion. unfortunately, my ex wife decided to drive it into a telephone pole and I never got to see it again!!!

[Rusty_OToole]

Back in 1980, when I was making the transition from fun cars to family cars I bought a 76 Volare Wagon. It had a 3 on the floor with an overdrive if I remember right. It was the perfect car for me at the time and drove real nice for a wagon. I have never been able to find anything on it to know if it was factory or someone's conversion. unfortunately, my ex wife decided to drive it into a telephone pole and I never got to see it again!!!

They sold a lot of Darts, Valiants, Volares and Aspens with floor shift, 3 speed plus overdrive transmissions at that time. Many were used in pickups and vans too.

It was one of the ways they had of getting better mileage.

The transmission was actually the old muscle car 4 speed, modified with an overdrive ratio where 3d used to be, and the shifting linkage modified so 4th (direct drive) became the new 3d and 3d became the new overdrive.

[bill pritchett]

In 1961, Oldsmobile offered a 3 speed manual transmission on the low end 88. I think that was the last of the 3 speeds. It was not available on the other models.

[Ted "Wildcat65" Nagel]

My favorite subject: Buicks and 65 Wildcats with manual transmissions!

Found out they existed from the 65 Chassis manual, started looking and have here

a 4-speed coupe,

2 4-speed convertibles and a 3 on the tree Wildcat (no power s or ,

a 3-speed 69 GS350

4-speed 65 Skylark GS

4-speed 70 Stage 1

Its probably a mental problem at this stage, dad would only have automatics. Still Rebelling!

Any full size Chrysler, Pontiac Oldsmobile or even Ford gets my attention when equipped with a manual trans.

[rons49]

May 1, 1951 was the date of the last Cadillac model 6. Only 4700 were produced for 1951

[rons49]

model 61 that is, sorry. Model 62s were all Hydromatic unless special order. 61 was gone in 1952 and the only standard was in the 75 series.

[rons49]

One of the guys in our region has a 1960 Tbird conv with a 3 on tree & OD. Never saw another.

[padgett]

I have had two, a 70 GP 400/4 spd and a 78 Sunbird 305/4spd. AFAIR there were 63 built of the latter and I had to put up a $1000 deposit before the dealer would order a car in south Florida that was not available with a/c.

In the mid-70s a number of GM cars were listed as being available with the BW T85 five speed but not with any engines that made any real torque, in the 78 Sunbirb you could get the five speed with the V-6 but only the "Saginaw by Muncie" four speed was available with the V-8. Killer autocross car.

In GM parley this was a giveaway that a car was "interesting" since the really wild engines were usually derated a bit e.g. Corvette 430 hp 427 was much more interesting than the 435 hp. Same-same 290hp Camaro vs 295 hp but "not available with air conditioning" equalled "for racers only".

AFAIK the rarest was one I passed on as too rusty in Lakeland a number of years ago, a 1966 Bonneville 4 door 4 speed with tripower (443 ?) one of one.

Edited September 8, 2010 by padgett (see edit history)

[Jrope]

My first new car was a 1967 Pontiac Catalina convertible. I wanted to place the order with a four-speed, but the salesman said that you could only order a 4 speed with bucket seats. I wanted a bench seat ( I was a young man and had plans) so I opted for a 3 speed, with a Hurst floor mounted shifter.

That evening, the salesman called to say that he checked and I could indeed have a 4 speed with a bench seat. I told him to submit the order as it was and give me power steering to make up the difference. What an unusual car that was! It had the 4bbl carb and duals. I only kept it two years because it was too expensive to drive with all of the speeding tickets. I now own an original '65 Catalina convert with a hydramatic. Those old Ponchos were and are beautiful cars to drive.