Highway speeds were typically around 45 or 50. Trips were typically short, with lots of starts and stops.Īnd highways were narrow, often with steep grades and tight curves.
#LAYCOCK OVERDRIVE PROBLEMS HOW TO#
Everyone still knew how to parallel park, even. In the twenties through the forties, American cars (and their drive trains) were designed for the prevailing conditions, which were very different than more modern ones. It would be natural to assume that Chrysler chose to take of advantage of this new technology because of the Airflow’s other technical advances and presumed higher cruising speed, thanks to its aerodynamics. That meant that competitors could also buy the system (Breer book, p. Chrysler chose to have Borg-Warner make and supply it. The “fourth gear” using the (Rex) Keller clutch was invented by Chrysler, but to avoid $25,000 in tooling costs, Walter P. Allpar has this to say about the origins of the B-W OD: This is about epicyclic or planetary overdrive ( not interstellar overdrive, which also has its joys ), as pioneered by Borg-Warner in 1934, and available on various American cars and trucks with three-speed transmissions until 1976, when the last AMC Gremlin or Hornet free-wheeled off the lines with one.īorg-Warner’s “automatic” overdrive premiered on a car that was quite advanced and adventurous in other ways: the 1934 Chrysler and DeSoto Airflow. For you younger readers, no, we’re not talking about the top gear in modern stick-shift or automatic transmissions. Revised ) After mentioning underdrive as an integral feature of Chrysler’s Fluid-Drive semi-automatic transmission in the 1946 Town and Country, it might be appropriate to shed a bit of light on its over-achieving relative: Overdrive.