budget 4 speed swap?

IMHO the only way to do it on a budget is to get lucky and get a good deal. I scored a 4 speed od feather duster for 200 bucks, a very lucky and very cheap score! then about 50 for the flywheel, still needs to be resurfaced so thats maybe another 20 bucks there. then the clutch was maybe $130 then maybe another 40 for fluids. then I got a bellhousing for maybe 50 bucks. that's at least 440 bucks rite there. I would think AT LEAST $800 if you got a fair deal on everything. if you get lucky like i did it could be done cheap.

as for automatics being faster, that is not always the case. If you want manual drive manual. screw what anyone says.