Favorite Car with semi-automatic

["Rog & Jan van Hoy" <vanhilla@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Those of you who haven't driven a car with clunk-o-matic
have missed out.  Taking your foot off the "foot-feed" and
waiting for the clunk is a real experience, especially when
passing.

There is no lockup fluid coupling on either Fluid Drive or
Fluid-Torque Drive as there is on a modern torque converter.
The only '50's lockup converter I've heard of is the Packard
Ultramatic.

The name "Gyromatic" is exclusive to Dodge.  Each make had
their own trade name for the semi-automatic, though the
technology was the same.  Pre-war Chrysler semi-automatics
were vacuum-controlled and were hence called Vacamatics;
post-war were hydraulically activated Prestomatics.

--Roger van Hoy, '55 DeSoto, '58 DeSoto, '42 DeSoto, '66
Plymouth, '81 Imperial, Washougal, WA


----- Original Message -----
| For a long time, I was sad that my '52s did not have a
Powerflite, but after
| driving the car for a while (it had been many years since
I had driven a
| Gyromatic, and then it was with a puny 6 in a Dodge) I
found that I really
| like it.  An advantage is that the fluid coupling
completely locks up at
| higher revs, so highway mileage is a little better because
of the reduced
| slippage.
|
| But it's all good and they're all good!!!
|
| John