1965 Chevy Caprice sedan with 3 on the tree.

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My favorite three-on-the-tree car was a 1957 Ford with the 312 "Thunderbird Engine" which was about 235 hp.

Lots of power off the line .... at engine idle you could drop the clutch ... a little chirp from the tires .... never stalled.

It loved to go over 30 mph in first gear .... 60 in second .... and quickly went to 90 in third .... my brakes and shocks were marginal so never tried faster.

Point is it was the greatest car to drive .... I have had modern 5 speeds and even close-ratio 6 speeds and none of them

compared to the 1957 for pure driving pleasure.

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Love the old ones. My everyday truck is a "3 on the Tree". A '72 Chevy C-10 Pick-up, which itself has a rarity. It has Factory Front Disc Brakes like they all have, but mine are Factory "Manual" Discs.

 

A Local Pontiac club member had an all original 66 GTO Tri-power with 3 on the tree, had a non synchro 1st gear, and the linkage would bind up if you tried to speed shift it! It was a very low mileage car. 66 was the only year that the column shift 3-speed was the standard transmission on a GTO, all other years had a floor shifter standard.
A floor shift was a Zero cost option, I have no idea why they spec'd out that way. The car he had even had an optional center console (Automatic) with an arrow head emblem on the block off plate. We never did find out why it was built with a column shifter when the center console was optioned for. All the info we found led us to believe if you ordered a center console you got a floor shifter? He recovered the cheap plastic shifter block off plate with woodgrain to match the rest of the center console. I thought the arrowhead blockoff plate was the best feature of the car myself. Very low option car besides the Tri-power and gauges.

below are old pictures from my HD. I haven't seen the car in 10+ years.

 

That's one of my favorite GM interior colors! Any pics outside?

 

I only have this one, I think the passenger side mirror was owner added also. I remember it being a manual Steering & Brakes car also.

 

Not bad, not bad, but the manual steering and brakes, you gotta stay on top of what the car does, all the time! My '78 Fairmont was manual everything, and a half-ton less weight, but you still had to pay strict attention to it.

 

It was a very unusual car, even color wise. you don't often see a Black car with a bright Blue interior, Black, Red, or White were the more common interior colors on a Black car in the era.

 

Imagine being able to order the car you want instead of having to take the car the manufacturers/dealers want to sell you. Did we buyers really have that power at one time? Hard to imagine now.

 

Last 3 on the tree was 1987 Chevy Truck/vans, as an option