<VV>Economy in 1959 NO CORVAIR

[Frank DuVal]

There was also no Low on the shift quadrant, just P R N D Gr

Frank DuVal

Harry Yarnell wrote:

> 'Grade retard' on the Turboglide wasn't a lower gear; it worked sorta 
> like the reverse thrusters on a jet engine to slow it down on landing. 
> I forget exactly how it worked, but it was a braking action, not a 
> lower gear.
>
> Harry Yarnell
> Perryman Garage and Orphanage
> hyarnell1 at earthlink.net
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Forman" <larry at forman.net>
> To: <FrankCB at aol.com>; <pp2 at 6007.us>; <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 2:39 PM
> Subject: Re: <VV>Economy in 1959 NO CORVAIR
>
>
> Hi Frank,
> 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!  I foolishly installed a 
> tach and it just SAT there when I floored it once it got to maybe 2500 
> rpms or possibly less. The engine just sat there and the car kept 
> increasing in speed without much tach movement.  The engine was a 348 
> which became the 409 for racing.  It also had on the shift selector a 
> position between L and D which was labeled as GR, which I always said 
> stood for GRRRRR!  It was actually Grade Retard, so you could go down 
> a steep grade and drop it into GR and if you were lucky, did not break 
> the rear wheels loose, and just turned all the engine output into heat 
> for the transmission!  Once I dropped it into GR when slowing down and 
> pulling onto a huge gravel lot.  I did a donut before I could think 
> about it as the rear wheels broke loose slowing down in the lower gear.
>
> Larry
>