Jeff: Your left knee will be fine with a standard shift, not a problem once you've rehabbed. At least it was for me.
I've had the good fortune to have both a four speed street car and a Turbo350 street car, both with dual quad setups on top of the big iron heads and stuffed into '62 Chevys. The four speed is much more fun to drive, and I have put on a few freeway miles (12,000) with the 3.36 gears. I have to admit having a 3 speed automatic was easy to drive on the local streets and I think I am slipping a TH400 in the next driver car I finish (whenever the convertible passes through metallurgic purgatory aka body work)
. It's a slippery slope from there, might have to put in a tilt wheel for easy access...
Oddly enough the BA409, which was once a street vehicle with a dual quad 409 and a Turbo350, still has that (modified) tranny in place (but now it's a drag car). That's 'cause I'm too cheap to buy a performance race-ready tranny and the various iterations of clutches that James would torture
: )
.