<VV> PG discussion : "simply cruising" or "driving" ?

[Charles Lee]

I agree that for parades, city traffic and "simply cruising" an automatic is
better or at least as good, but that's not why we drive Corvairs, is it ?

It's Rick's Virginia hills and "Corvair country" where "more gears = more
fun"?

Charlie


-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Tony Underwood
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 5:39 AM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> PG discusion (was "A good day in my little Vair' shop")

At 10:55 PM 10/28/2011, Karl Haakonsen wrote:
>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).
>- - -
>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.



It also was hooked to an engine with a broader torque curve than most 
of today's space-age high strung engines that NEED a bunch of gears 
to work best.   Sure, modern engines have high horsepower but it 
comes at a price.  No pun either.   It's easy today to buy a car with 
200 cubic inches and 300 horsepower but it's gonna have a flock of 
gears to keep that engine on its light-switch powerband.   Even that 
vehicle's automatic transmission is likely to have 4 (or maybe even 
more) forward speeds.

50 years of technology and computerized engine controls and very 
careful matching of components allows this sort of 
engine-transmission combo to work nicely.   This is why modern cars 
are so insanely complicated and difficult to fix when something goes 
wrong.   I admire the simplicity of the Corvair's Powerglide and its 
engine that is also rather nicely matched to that same 
Powerglide.   Sure, not a lot of horsepower but it's smooth and 
tractable and easy to drive and nearly bulletproof.   4-speed 
gearboxes are fun to play with but for simply cruising around 
enjoying scenery that Powerglide is hard to ignore.


tony..   
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