ennui countermeasure
We got waaaay more entries than we expected in
yesterday's Create The Jalopnik Transmission Name contest, so after slogging through all the suggestions (and discarding those with Astroglide references, you pervs- this is
serious business here!) we've come up with thirteen finalists instead of the planned "few." The winner gets 25 Little Tree air fresheners and the glory of seeing his or her creation proudly emblazoned on each and every transmission to come off the planned Jalopnik-operated Wall Of Death Transmission Factory assembly line. Make the jump and make your vote count!
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ennui countermeasure
We love contests, so what better way to brighten the gloom of that ol' Monday salt mine than by thinking up the
ultimate cool transmission name? Those of you who have been following the
Cool Transmission Name Of The Day series have no doubt looked at names such as
Toyoglide and
Dynaflow and said to yourselves, "Hey, I could do
that!" Well, now you can, because we're going to work 24/7 to get the Gawker Overlords to fund the creation of the Wall Of Death Transmission Factory, where the Official Jalopnik Transmission™ will be manufactured! Make the jump to learn how to enter and what you'll win...
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cool transmission name of the day
The Simca Vedette came with a scaled-down flathead Ford V8, and any French car that looks like a tiny late-50s Chrysler with a 2.1 liter flathead Ford under the hood is aces in our book... but when that car comes with an automatic overdrive unit with a name as cool as
Rush-Matic... why, it vaults straight into the Jalopnik Hall of Fame! Check out
this Vedette ad to see the amazing Rush-Matic in action.
[Club Vedette]
cool transmission name of the day
So far we've had only automatics in the Cool Transmission Name Of The Day series, but that doesn't mean The General's indestructible Muncie M-22 doesn't deserve its day of CTNOTD glory. Oh, sure, "Rock Crusher" wasn't its
official name, but I'm making up the rules here and I say it qualifies! In addition to being named after the Indiana town of its manufacture (giving Muncieites the right to look down their noses at residents of Saginaw, Michigan, where the wimpier GM 4-speeds were built), the Rock Crusher was installed in Muscle Era GTOs, Corvettes, GSXs, and the like.
[Year One]
cool transmission name of the day
Back when each of The General's divisions designed its own hardware, Buick developed the two-speed Dynaflow automatic from the transmission it put in
M18 tank destroyers during the war. Yes, the Dynaflow started out as a transmission for a
tracked vehicle! Sadly, this Cool Transmission Name disappeared after the 1963 model year.
[Wikipedia]
cool transmission name of the day
We aren't bothered by the fact that Toyota's first automatic transmission was based on GM's famous two-speed Powerglide, because Toyota came up with one of the best transmission names of all time: Toyoglide! You could get your late-60s/early-70s Crowns and Coronas with the Toyoglide option, and it's a shame that Toyota doesn't use the Toyoglide name on their current offerings. Photo credit:
Hemmings Auto Blogs [Wikipedia]
cool transmission name of the day
We haven't forgotten the
Engine of the Day series, but all the research I've been doing for the next round of EOTD entrants keeps turning up the incredible futuristic names that manufacturers used for automatic transmissions. Back when the slushbox was the Next Big Thing, everyone had to have a catchy name, and today we're going to look at Packard's: the Ultramatic! The two-speed Ultramatic was introduced in 1949 and was used until the end of the Packard era in 1956. Image credit:
Autotransmission.fi.
[Wikipedia]
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