so my friend recently got a 1966 ford mustang with a 302 5.0 crate Windsor engine i have only riddin in it once but i notice that his transmission was different what i mean by that is his shift lever says 1,2,3 and he shifts it like a manual but its an automatic and he says he has to because its some sort of race transmission im not even sure if it has a d for drive on the *** also another one of my friends has an el camino and his is very very similar to the mustangs what transmission do you guys think these might have, mostly wondering about the mustangs.

 

Ford did not make automatic overdrive transmissions until the advent of the AOD. prior to this they were all three speeds and the final drive gear being one to one. The C4 was the light / medium duty transmission and the C 6 was the bull worker.
They started out with a two speed automatic in 1953, the FMx somewhere in between this, then went to the C3, then the C4, and finally the C5 which was essentially a C4 with a lock up torque converter. The C4 has a variety of combination shift kits and valve bodies that were available for it after market. If done right they can actually handle up to 1200 horse power in front of it. Your buddy may have a rebuilt C4 with a manual valve body kit installed hence the manual shifting. But for the most part you just put the shift arm in the #3 position and it should shift automatically on it's own.

 

Another nice thing about Fords older automatic transmissions was great for winter drivers. If you put the transmission into "2", it would actually start out in second gear and you would not over torque the tires and loose what traction you may have vs. starting in 1st or 3rd (3rd would always sequence 1-2-3)..