Here's one you don't see much of anymore

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My sister's first car was a '65 Biscayne in dull metallic aqua with 6 cylinder and 3-speed column shift. A family friend worked for GMAC and the Biscayne came in as a repo. My dad got it for like $250 or so in 1969. It was so stripped down that the AM radio didn't have any selector buttons. I suppose that was a step up from no radio at all. I learned to work a clutch in that car. It was much more forgiving than my dad's '50 GMC.
 
My sister's first car was a '65 Biscayne in dull metallic aqua with 6 cylinder and 3-speed column shift. A family friend worked for GMAC and the Biscayne came in as a repo. My dad got it for like $250 or so in 1969. It was so stripped down that the AM radio didn't have any selector buttons. I suppose that was a step up from no radio at all. I learned to work a clutch in that car. It was much more forgiving than my dad's '50 GMC.
Yes, Ralph those old American cars with a 3 on the tree manual trans were very easy to master the clutch on. Much easier to drive than a Volkswagen with a 4 on the floor and their terribly temperamental clutches. The older more expensive cars in the 30’s and 40’s had so much torque that you could drive all over town in 3rd and never lug the engine, rich folks and women drivers in those days didn’t like to shift any more than they had to. With a 3 on the tree unless you came to a full stop you really only needed to shift between 2nd and 3rd during most driving, easy peasy. I’ve never personally driven a manual trans car with more than 5 speeds. But I’ve seen that there are now manual trans cars with 6 or more forward gears. That’s just too damn much unnecessary shifting for moi.

Eddie
 
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Glenn, thanks for posting the photos. That was a special order ‘69 (maybe a ‘70 they look almost the same) Chevy Biscayne if I ever saw one.

That’s a 427 V8 390 hp, paired with it looks like a 4 speed, I can’t see the shift knob. With the special order of the 427 engine I’m pretty sure they sprung for the performance 4 speed trans too. The rest of the car is pretty much like company or salesman’s coupe would have looked other wise. But the standard power train woulda been a 250 inline 6 with a three on the tree. It’s really in pristine condition and I’ll bet it goes like a bat outta hell!

Eddie
 
It just came to me that my first partner way back in the 70s bought a used old 68 or 69 Biscayne 3 on the tree. I don't remember though if it was a 2 or 4 door sedan only that it was a light blue. I only drove it a handful of times as I had a 72 Centurion for a bit and then the 75 Electra coupe. You could pick up old cars back then for a few hundred bucks in fairly nice shape seeing as in Vancouver they didn't salt roads so rust was never a problem like it was back here. Biscaynes were popular as taxicabs.
 
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