Hi, 'Face. Just stopping by while online.
My experience follows I_T's comments, though it is somewhat biased. I have no recollections of seeing automatics in England, Germany or France, including colleagues' private cars and rentals. In the US, all the rentals I've had are automatics, as are colleagues' cars.
For my part, I was happy to find a stickshift 4WD.
This time, I'd junk the TH-400 instead of just upgrading the crap out of it. I'd also lose the 4bbl and toss in a injection/Whipple supercharger set up. Oughta yeild around an even 1000HP at the crank. That, and I wonder if the guys at Headers By Ed up in MN remember how they plumbed my last one. Needed to reroute the drivers side bank of downtubes to clear the stearing box.
Yah...me too! I prefer the stick shift. To me, it's easier to drive and to maintain.
Irish people hate automatics!!