<VV> PG discusion (was "A good day in my little Vair' shop")

[Karl Haakonsen]

This was copied and pasted (and edited) from a post I made last year. My old contribution was a "necro post" on an old discussion topic so it went ignored. I re-purposed it to this ongoing discussion (disclaimer: I have always preferred manual transmissions for the control they afford me over gear selection; yet, as a city dweller, I appreciate the convenience of an automatic and am generally more flexible about the subject).
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For those who complain about the lameness of having only 2 gears, remember that the theory behind the PG was that there were two mechanical speeds and a theoretically infinite number of speeds handled by the torque converter which had a maximum reduction of 2.6:1. (there's a great tech topic on this in the "Transmissions" section of the Corsa Tech Guides titled "Praise the Powerglide" or something like that). 

My guess is that modern transmissions with more mechanical gears perform better because the additional mechanical gears give better precision in terms of keeping the transmission in the ideal torque band of the engine than afforded by the two-speed PG-style. So the modern automatic doesn't really utilize the torque converter for gear reduction, but as just a clutch of sorts. The PG wasn't really as bad as some of its detractors think ... remember that it did somewhat better in 0-60 acceleration than the 3-speed manual Corvair. 

Karl in Boston 
66 Monza Convertible 110/PG 
www.chezhawk.com/VairBlog
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