Stock auto vs. stock manual, the manual is the clear winner especailly on a stock car. Auto's are heavier, and put more drag on the engine. Manuals have clear advantages and disavantages. One of the advantages is throttle response because the engine is directly connected to the axels, while with an auto, you have to wait a second. If you go with the C4, make shure it is a built one. I would go for a manual valve body. When the power gets really high, the time it takes to shift can put you car lengths behind and manuals are harder to keep consistant. When I get the shifts right on my T-5, it sounds like an auto because I just jab the clutch enough to jam it in the next gear, the clutch doesn't go all the way in, but it is easy to mess up, and when launching, it's hard to just release the clutch just right or it spinns all over the place.
I drove a Monte Carlo SS with a manual valve body and a nice stall. When I went to shift from one gear to another, it was such a fast shift, as soon as I tapped the lever it was in the next gear. Downshifting was the same story. The only thing I didn't like is that until it hit over 2500rpm's it was dead due to the converter, but when it did it snapped my neck back.
Manual transmissions are just more fun.
