This is the way it ought to be right?

In the heyday of Stock and Super Stock racing, the big question wasn’t whether you had a stick or an automatic, but whether you rowed the gears on the floor or on the column. But as technology in automatic transmissions and torque converters has closed the gap in performance with the manual and clutch combos, and the classes have sadly morphed into glorified bracket racing eliminators, the sticks have gone the way of the Dodo bird in favor of a field almost entirely comprised of automatic-equipped cars.

Just because that’s the way it is though, doesn’t mean we have to like it.

Both watching and hearing a high-winding Stocker or Super Stocker bang through the gears and hop with every gear change down the quarter mile is one of the most exciting things in all of drag racing, and it’s got to be two-tons of fun to drive!

This video, captured from the passenger side door of NHRA Super Stock racer Bobby Fazio’s SS/L ’64 Mustang, shows Fazio rowing through the gears of the four-speed aboard his 289-powered Pony car.

If the sound of this screaming small block doesn’t get your blood pumping, you just may have accidentally stumbled upon the wrong hobby.