<VV>Turboglides in 1959 NO CORVAIR

[Padgett]

>Then too in the late 50's was the infamous Turboglide which I had in my 59 
>Impala convertible land yacht.  It was like the Buick Dynaflow and 
>featured an infinite number of gears!

Just tried to find specifics but no-go. My memory of the Turboglide was 
that was a non-automatic version of the powerglide that was all torque 
converter, maybe several torque converters. At the time the Cruise-O-Matic 
in Thunderbirds had a setting that would always began in second. The 
planetary gearset was designed to provide a ratio that, unlike the PG, was 
low enough to provide engine compression braking on a steep hill at low 
speeds. It was not designed for acceleration and required manual selection.

Keep in mind that a luxury car of the time was so smooth you did not feel 
the shifts. For fifty years the American idea was to get into top as soon 
as possible and stay there.  The cheap way to achieve that was to design a 
transmission that didn't shift and big inch American engines with 3.xx:1 
axles had enough torque to pull it off. Meanwhile those that did have gears 
looked for ways to shift less (like starting in second). Gas was under 20 
cents a gallon if you looked so economy was for people with stick 
shifts.  Interstates were still a dream of Ike's so most speed limits were 
65 or less. There were people who never drove over 45. You just did not 
need a lot of gears.

Padgett