I used to drive my silver car daily with the N/A auto setup and I loved it. You'll be amazed how much more solid those cars are than the typical beat up 5.0. No squeaks and rattles, really cool. It made a great driver, but I'd probably do a 5 speed if you were getting it for that purpose. The auto is really a slug, and I didn't get much more than 20 mpg.

You can do some mild things to pep an N/A motor up. Obviously rear gears would be nice, you can run run an exhaust manifold from a later Ranger which is basically a cast iron header. There are some cams available, you could shave the head for higher compression.

Obviously it will never be a race car, but they do make for fun cheap, reliable drivers.