[steve s]

On our backroads trip thru the mountains of WV on our way to the Williamsburg meet a few years ago, the two A's with stock heads would fall behind the two with high compression heads, but they would always catch up and it didn't seem to be a problem. Three of the cars had stock brakes--no problem. All four cars had F-150 transmissions, but since the first three gears were the same ratios as stock A, it made no difference in pulling hills--as long as you're good at double clutching for gear changes. The overdrive was, of course, superfluous in the mountains but nice on the flatlands of Ohio and Michigan. What I would have dearly loved to have was a gear in between 2nd and 3rd. There's a really awkward zone around 25-30 mph where you have to choose between roaring or lugging the motor. If I were going to be doing a lot of mountain driving, I would seriously consider the gear splitter overdrive that's available--but then you've got one more lever to deal with.