I bracket raced a 340 Dart 4-speed back in the late 70's and early 80's. I loved racing that stick car as it ran a best of 11.90's but I found out 2 things. One is the stick breaks alot more parts then an auto car and two is there really is not many good stick drivers out there. Yea they all think they are Ronnie Sox but I see many cars going faster when they put an auto in it. The stick cars can be very fast but you need to be a good driver to make it fast. I see many stick cars with the speed to go alot faster then they are. There are some really good stick drivers out there but many think they are better then they really are. When I built my street/strip car back in the mid 90's I went auto as I knew I could not afford to break parts and still be able to keep racing. And I found out that the auto's are usually faster then the stick cars unless the stick car has a good stick driver. Its amazing how modern technology has made the torque converter work so good and launch auto cars as hard as stick cars. Its a tuff call since the auto trans work so well now a days in shifting and launching. Ron