[Christ]

Agreed. On both accounts.

With Cara, since the 5 speed swap was short in coming, I had thought about putting a manual valve body, manual lockup control, and having a new custom converter put in, with a stall speed basically just off idle. The 2.4 had enough torque in low gear to get the van moving without having to rev it up, so that setup would have worked out nicely.

Manual valve body is still something I'd like to see someone else try, though. Once you get used to it, it should help get rid of some of the inefficiency of driving an auto-equipped vehicle, since you can short shift when you want, and have better control over engine load.