that's the way both of my cars are too, no choke. carbs.
they are lean until it warms up, they will idle but it's a little slow, then the idle comes around as they warm up.
off idle transition is lean so it's a little tricky, if i try to really give them a stab of the throttle then they do the lean backfire or stumble/stall.

to drive them when cold they like to have the rpms around 1500-2000 rpm or so, once they get some heat in them i let the trans shift into third and let the rpms drop...