are cheetah manual valve bodies woth the price?

I don't own one of these valve bodies (yet), but this is how I understand it, please correct me if I'm wrong....

You are correct in that the auto/manual is nothing more than a regular automatic valve body. The idea of the auto/manual valve body is simply that it already has a shift kit installed. So, if you have it in D, the automatic shifts will be much crisper, or you can shift through them manually... your choice.

I assumed you WILL need a kickdown because you do not shift it manually back to first until AFTER the car comes to a full stop.

with a shift kit added the shifts are crisper & you stay in D & it just shifts harder/better & a kickdown linkage is still needed & you should not manually shift it between gears. full manual valve body you DO shift into/out each gear manually just like a stick shift & no kickdown linkage needed. I believe a reverse pattern valve body with the attending reverse pattern on the shifter is to keep a person from(with a manual valve body) from going past the D & into N or R when manually shifting from 1 to 2 then to D as you don't want to overshoot the D during the race & with the reverse pattern you are heading toward the D & there's nothing to overshoot.

I have had one in my last two cars and I also love it great piece for the small price tag

Once you run a manual VB you will never go back.

You have to shift a true full manual valve body. I prefer the reverse pattern as I like to race sometimes and I prefer to pull the shifter back towards me as I shift. Ron

i run the manula/automatic cheetah. works great with the slap stick shifter.

3 is full auto. seconf is 1st and 2nd. shifts hit hard and crisp. one of the best things ive done to it

i run the full man. forward w/a hurst qutr.stick, pretty hard to mess up a shift.