automatic transmissions

[thebarber]

Originally Posted by Bob_VT

The automatic Corvette is alleged to be quicker than the standard.....

faster or not i couldnt drive an auto corvette...

that, and an auto corvette just seems wrong...

laughably, my old boss's brother was all about corvettes. i knew he had one and he talked about driving it all the time and how fast it was. he actually stopped by the office one day with it. i was excited to take a look at it. then i saw the blautomatic transmission and was quite thrown for a loop....

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by thebarber

faster or not i couldnt drive an auto corvette...

that, and an auto corvette just seems wrong...

laughably, my old boss's brother was all about corvettes. i knew he had one and he talked about driving it all the time and how fast it was. he actually stopped by the office one day with it. i was excited to take a look at it. then i saw the blautomatic transmission and was quite thrown for a loop....

For a long time the most popular transmission for dragster use was the GM "Powerglide", a two speed AT. They were mechanically simple, robust and with a cast iron case could tolerate tremendous torque.

In contrast MTs could cause trouble if a goofed shift caused the the clutch to "blow apart". If one did not have proper shielding fragments could penetrate the floor of the passenger compartment, causing injuries or death.

Gene