QFT. And I owned a cat once with my Urethane Buddy Club front bumper on my Civic going over 50mph. No damage to the car whatsoever except the clip holding the bumper on broke.
It shouldn't take a thread to convince you to ditch the AT for a MT 6sp. Your daily driving experiences alone should do that, lol.
I was planning on do the 5spd manual conversion regardless, but after this I want to do the 6spd instead and bump it up a little sooner ahead of the turbo project. Suspension in the next couple months and then busy 2011 with tranny swap and boost/engine internals upgrade
You won't regret it
Any word on how long of a project and anyone care to help in Ohio? lol. It sounds like it's gonna be a b****. I better start reading the threads for it.

is all i can do! haha