Hydra-Matic

My August 2007 issue of Hemmings Classic-Car Magazine has a large treatment on the Hydra-Matic automatical transmission.
The Hydra-Matic was General Motors’ first fully automatical transmission; introduced in 1939 by Oldsmobile.
It was pretty good, considering what it was up against, like Fluid-Drive from Chrysler, which really only put a fluid-coupling in place of the clutch.
Heatwole had a variation on this that had a clutch-pedal that activated things. Startup had to be on the clutch, and then clutching (declutching) caused an upshift.
But I guess it still had a standard-transmission. I guess Fluid-Drive did too.
I’ve never really understood automatical transmissions; probably because I never tore one down.
The Classic-Car article is describing Hydra-Matic operation, but I can’t follow it.
The Hydra-Matic also competed against Buick’s Dynaflow, a horrible auto-tranny.
Dynaflow let the poor motor rev like the dickens on startup. It was like driving a rubber-band. Floor the turkey and it would slowly pick up speed.
Dynaflow was partly what engendered the term “slushbox.”
There was no denying a standard-tranny did a better job of putting the power down.
An auto-tranny also consumed horsepower driving a pump, but it wasn’t too bad.
The hairball was the slush.
But auto-trannies got better.
Even lowly Chevrolet began installing more speeds than their simple two-speed PowerGlide.
In fact, it got so dragsters, which need maximum acceleration, fell to using auto-trannies.
The auto-tranny takes out the possibility of a driver mucking up operation — like a missed shift.
The Hydra-Matic had four speeds, which is one more than average.
It also was pretty tight; a slushbox, but not very slushy.
Floored, the Hydra-Matic dropped a gear. I remember Cindy Ball telling us about Passing-Gear in her parents’ ‘59 Olds, and that it was a thrill. (One wonders if The Tank had Hydra-Matic........)
Hydra-Matic lasted a while, too; although upgrades were done over time, and it was redesigned in 1956 — but mainly to accommodate stronger engines.
Jim Bowling’s father’s 1962 Pontiac had Hydra-Matic. Bowling was the guy who went through the stop-signs in the dark at 110 on Shipley at Silverside; and that was the car.
(Shipley and Silverside is now a traffic-light.)
Now just about everything is auto-tranny — standard-shift is rare. In fact, I think you couldn't even get standard-tranny in our so-called soccer-mom minivan.

“Heatwole” is Eugene Heatwole, an older man who with his wife tried to entertain us reprehensible yooth at Immanual Baptist Church in Wilmington in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. He had a 1952 Chrysler.

“Cindy Ball” is the only child of our neighbors across-the-street where we lived north of Wilmington. She was two years older than me.

“The Tank” is the 1964 Oldsmobile my parents owned. My younger brothers gave it that nickname because it was such a battleship.

“Jim Bowling” was a fellow-student that graduated in my high-school class in 1962 at Brandywine High School north of Wilmington.

“Shipley” Road is a main east-west road north of Wilmington. It crosses “Silverside” Road, a north-south road that eventually turns east-west.

The “so-called soccer-mom minivan” was our 1993 Chevrolet Astrovan, called that by my macho, loud-mouthed brother-in-Boston. It’s been traded for a 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan.