3 ms·
These were used in legendary Rolls-Royces from the 1960s (Silver Cloud, ...). It is a good sign that this thing was so good. I had the chance to drive one of th
by gregoriol 3y ago
These were used in legendary Rolls-Royces from the 1960s (Silver Cloud, ...). It is a good sign that this thing was so good. I had the chance to drive one of them and it still runs well after >60 years, sometimes even more accurate speed changes than some automatics from the 1990s.
- jdblair 3y agoThere is a story (my Dad told me) that Rolls Royce took the part from General Motors and refined it by polishing surfaces and otherwise correcting what they thought were manufacturing defects. But after the refinement, the transmission no longer worked! There was no longer sufficient friction inside the mechanism to transfer the mechanical energy.
- userbinator 3y agoI'd only known of the far more famous TH400 being used by Rolls-Royce, so I looked it up, and found that they did use the original 4-speed Hydramatic before that, but not the smoother "controlled coupling" variant --- here's a long and detailed (4 pages) article about it: https://ateupwithmotor.com/terms-technology-definitions/rolls-royce-automatic-gearbox/ https://ateupwithmotor.com/terms-technology-definitions/roll... It also mentions the same story in the sibling comment about them trying to improve the parts, but ended up making things worse.