<VV> 4-speed "Powerglide"

[NicolCS at aol.com]

Keith, this is closer to home than you might think.  The 4-speed  transaxles 
were developed by Jay Eitel, a CORSA member, as a part of the  super-duty 
program in the early 60's.  Jay has one in a '69, driven by a  Jag V12. Read all 
about it at the CORSA web area under "Gary Aube".  For  that transaxle, two 
powerglides were mated in series.  Naturally all the  ratios were changed, but 
essentially you have a dual-range powerglide. Two  powerglide shifts, then 
change the range, followed by two more powerglide  shifts. This is analogous to the 
4-speed hydromatics of the 50s.  The  Pontiac racing 4-speed transaxles were 
manually controlled.  Jay developed  and built an automatic control for his, 
so he has the only "automatic"  one.  Jay's boss was Bill Collins (assistant 
chief engineer under  DeLorean).  Bill's later claim to fame was as engineer for 
the DeLorean and  after that the Vixen motorhome, both of which used 
transaxles. There are Vixen  owners among us (I was).  Tom Zimmerman (on this list) is 
noodling on how  to combine powerglides (I think) and how to maybe use the 
Delorean/Vixen/Renault  UN-15-speed transaxle in a Corvair.
Craig Nicol

<snip>
Alright, I waited to see if anyone else would mention  this and as no one has 
here goes. A couple weeks a go I was watching "Muscle  Cars" on "Spike" and 
in between welding and grinding on various things they  followed a group of 4 
or 5 Pontiacs built and raced by a now deceased famous  Pontiac guy. The name 
was known to me (but now forgotten). Arnie (The Farmer)  Beswick maybe?  His 
family was selling his collection. His cars were quite  dominant in the early 
and mid '60s. At the auction block they showed the cars  and my attention was 
drawn to an early Tempest wagon (transaxle equipped of  course). Yes the bastard 
cousin to the Vair as my Uncle referred to his. As they  moved the camera 
around and looked into the back, the narrator mentioned the PG  had been 
engineered with a second planetary gear set making for 4 forward  speeds! Well that 
caught my ear. Now I have no idea how this works. Maybe  someone out there knows 
this set up? 
BTW this "guy " was know for his hot  421 Super Duty Pontiacs. That is what 
was in the  Tempest so this was one  stout transaxle.
Alright figure out how this works and report back I can't  wait to have a 4 
speed auto Vair.

P.S. I tracked down some more info.  Actually the same car being sold again. 
The link should take you to Mecum  Auctions. It mentions parts of two PGs 
being  used.


http://www.mecumauction.com/auctions/lot_detail.html?CART=11715132063221169&LO
T_ID=SC0507-52324

Keith  Wodke <unsnip>