Re: NAC Big V8/brake lights

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

The GM  Hydramatic was first offered on the Series 60 Cadillac of 1939, 
I believe. The Chrysler "Fluid-drive" was NOT an automatic, and in fact 
was one of the most complex and terrible transmissions ever offered in 
a production car (along with the vacuum pre-selector offered in the 
Cord and the Wilson electric pre-selector offered in Bugattis and 
Talbot-Lagos and, I understand, a few Alfa Romeos in the late '30's). 
But I wasn't speaking ONLY of V-8s when I said that American big-block 
engines pre-dated the automatic. The US auto industry was building 240 
cubic-inch and larger straight sixes, straight-eights, V-12's and and 
V-16s all through the twenties and thirties. The 1935 Cadillac , for 
instance had a 355 cubic-inch V-8, a 370 cubic-inch V-12, and a 452 
cubic-inch V-16.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6

On Sunday, Feb 16, 2003, at 22:50 US/Pacific, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:42:10 -0700
> From: bearbvd@domain.elided (Greg Hermann)
> Subject: Re: NAC Big V8/brake lights
>
> At 2:26 PM 2/16/03, Tony Sims wrote:
> > > I'm sure its a factor, but the big, low revving American cast-iron
> > > engine came out well before the automatic transmission.
> The GM Hydramatic first appeared in the '30's. Although the Ford 
> flattie
> V-8 came out in '32, the Olds "Rocket" V-8 ('47) is generally 
> recognized as
> the "first" of the big iron V-8's.
>
> Chrysler also did some things with automatics in the '30's.
>
> Greg
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