captaincranky
Posts: 20,171 +9,163
Well Chevy only had 2 speed autos for years and years, "Powerglide". As a matter of fact, I even think you had to suffer with it in the Corvette. So four speed was the ticket if you, "wanted to get somewhere in a hurry". In fact, the first issues of the Vette, were a 235 CID L6. Stock Chevy sticks were three speed, and not terribly rugged. I use rip the shifter/syncronizer's carrier rings off at least every couple weeks. Another trans, another 25 dollars.
Ford was the outlier with their shifting "solution". They were 3 speed, where, "2nd gear", actually was only 2nd gear. The plot was sort of a pretend stick, where if you locked it in 2nd, that was the only speed you got. Ostensibly, it mimicked what you would do with a standard trans, in snow and ice, which was start out in 2nd, giving less power and more throttle control to prevent the tires from spinning (too much). IIRC, they called them "Cruiseomatic". Then they had the ill fated "Edsel", which put buttons for shifting, smack in the middle of the steering wheel.
Buick had something they called "Dynaflow", (IIRC), which supposedly didn't shift, but rather had a constantly variable ratio from low to high. I never serviced one so I never did figure out how they did that. But as you can imagine, there was a lot of slushing going on in there somewhere.
Chrysler's "Torqueflight" was the best of the batch, (3 speed). Still, their autos were in a different racing class, from the same year/ same model in stick. IIRC, "SS" (super stock) & "SSA" (super stock automatic). Again IIRC, the autos were around 1 second slower in the quarter.
Sorry for all the "IIRCs", but that was 60 years or so ago.
I'm right there with you on the "gimme my buttons and switches back". After they force all this safety crap on you, (at considerable expense), they turn around and stuff a home entertainment system in the center of the front seat.
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