Unfortunately, "Chrysler New Yorker" only exists on four-track cassette tape, and my ol' Tascam Porta 01 died years ago. That means you don't get to hear that fine song, which thrilled dozens of Japanese college radio fans during the late 1980s. What you do get is the "music video" for the Murilee Arraiac song "Hajoi Hotai," which features the circa-1990 replacement of a 2-speed Powerglide with a junkyard Turbo Hydramatic 350 3-speed in a 1965 Impala. That's me with the Plumber Butt on the right left, and my friend ChunkyDeath on the right. Note ChunkyDeath's innovative "floor jack leg pump" maneuver.

According to Ford, the trick to the transmission is augmenting a traditional Lapelletier powerflow with a sintered, powder metal carrier for the planetary gearset. It allows high strength in a complex part able to stand up to both the high speed and high torque requirements of both engines. The common transmission allows Ford to focus as much on the shifting and control strategy as it does the mechanics, and as a result this trans packs some nifty tricks.

The six gears are spread out to provide low end grunt and high end efficiency, but with a degree of control truck transmissions rarely get. The trans can be operated in traditional automatic or a fully manual mode, where gear selection locks the torque converter and hold the gear as long as the driver sees fit. It'll bog all the way down to 900 RPM before shifting out.

The 6R140 also takes a page from the F150 and uses a tow haul mode which improves control and braking in hilly situations. Perhaps the neatest trick comes with the diesel application. A honest to God power take off will be available for heavy duty applications like driving salt spreaders, sweepers, and any manner of mechanical what-have-you. See, new transmission can still get old tricks.

Click here the head back

Making 520HP at the wheels on a dyno is no joke for a turbocharged four-cylinder, especially from a car that never got much respect during its life, but this Colt manages it at a crushing 44 PSI of boost. That built engine wasn't hooked up to a particularly fortified transmission though, so this impressive failure was pretty much inevitable. Very nicely done sirs. (Hat tip to Sean!)

Pfitzner Performance Gearboxes (PPG) out of Australia wants R35 GT-R owners to have their cake and eat it too. They’re readying their first GT-R gearbox upgrade to hopefully solve the issue some owners are experiencing when over-using the launch control feature. The GR6 gearbox is a beefy unit from the factory, but it seemingly has its faults. According to PPG, the main reason for the GT-R transmission failures occurs on the teeth of the first gear when put under extreme stress. Fractures develop after few hard launches and eventually the teeth give way.

The company will soon offer a drop-in first gear replacement featuring a much wider gear to increase the strength of the unit. A follow up set will include gear upgrades for high-horsepower cars and a 1st through 4th gear upgrade set. We only hope Nissan will look to this option, rather than dropping launch control altogether. This is apparently what Australians are doing when not hooning cop cars.

[PPG via GTRBlog]

Another forum member clarifies that "you have to turn off VDC to activate LC, and you have to sign a paper saying your warranty is voided if you turn of VDC, and while VDC is off, you cause damage. It is clearly stated in the manual/warranty, as well as is put into writing and you have to sign, when you pick up the car." Below the jump, the personal account, in the owner's words, from a thread titled "do not launch your gtr or take the vdc off, time to bend over guys its gonna hurt."

I was driving my gtr two weeks ago and I heard a loud noise coming from the rear. I turned immediately had my gtr towed to crown nissan st. petersburg fl. They didn't touch my car only called some techs from tennessee to look at the car and record the noise, 4 days later two guys from japan to download some info from the car then left. Then I get a call from the dealer to tell me the news, and they told me that the car was driven without vdc too much and nissan will not warranty the transmission which they said was destroyed, I asked them how much to fix it they told me 20k, no freaking way I will pay 20k on top of what i just paid for the car. I called the gtr number and also talked to nissan consumer affairs got nowhere, now the car is sitting at the dealer. I know we shouldn't launch the car but why own it if you cant use this function, don't sell a car that goes 0-60 in 3.4 sec if the only way you can achieve this speed is to void the warranty , false advertising. Here is the bad news people were fearing it has happened to me and Nissan has told me there are already three people in my shoes, if you are one of these people email me, we have got to get together on this. Just think if any of you guys have taken the vdc off just a few times you have already voided your warranty, good luck what a joke nissan.

Since poor grammar doesn't lead to high credibility, we're wondering what the owner isn't telling us. At the same time, it seems odd that Nissan would build a supercar with a significant part like the transmission unable to handle hard use. What do you think? Is this guy a moron that hooned his car beyond the reasonable limits, or does he have a valid point to his complaints? [read the entire thread at NAGTROC] (Hat tip to Michael!)

The first thing that had to happen for automatics to get closer to manuals in fuel economy was an improvement in automatic transmission design. Advances like variable line pressure and the addition of more than four forward gears were far too long in coming to mass-market vehicles in this country. But, five- and six-speed autoboxes are finally becoming the norm. Even the retro four-speed automatics many domestics saddle their low-end models with now have variable line pressure, which reduces the amount of power needed to drive the transmission. All these improvements lead to better efficiency and reduced fuel consumption.

But the key, as with so many modern advances, has been in the software controlling the engine/transmission relationship. Old transmissions used a vacuum modulator and a mechanical governor to adjust shift points. New electronically controlled automatics take advantage of vast improvements in processor power to tailor shifts, internal pressures, and torque converter lockup to extract the maximum amount of efficiency possible. The engine helps, though: Cylinder deactivation, like Chrysler's MDS and GM's Active Fuel Management, only works effectively through constant communication with the transmission's requirements. You don't feel any of it happening: You just notice that your new automatic car gets close to the same mileage as your old 5-speed manual beater.

So, Rex Roy, we agree that automatics have made exponential improvements in recent years. But let's not give short shrift to the software wizardry and all the black boxes that allow an engine and a transmission to function as an integrated modern powertrain. [Detroit News; Photo Credit: ZF]

Borg-Warner Dual-clutch Complexitron (with Hydromaniacal Dynashift and one-touch Premature Paradigm Shift-o-matic) - Ash78

Ooze-O-Matic 404. It would come with a little lcd display for the "Gear Not Found" errors. - Mike the Dog Misses POLAЯ, Too!

Ultra-Syncro-Electro-Lightning-Efficient-Slick-Shift, also known as USELESS - mwood10

Gnashville Knucklebuster - Beercheck (who also thought up quite a few additional good names, but only one per finalist... according to the rules I'm making up as I go along)

The BCK, "Bruce Clutch Kicker", on the column, 4 speed, kicks your ass at every gear change - Franzouse

The iShift.. which coincidently you have no means of controlling other than a single button which engages it, and a shuttle which selects either forward or reverse - WheatKing

Pimpmatic Smoothglide Turbo 600. A 6-speed automatic for luxury cars with an attitude. Yes, it's from Detroit. - Deckard97

Manu-muscu-mascu-mover - for installation in half-restored muscle cars of those who only wish to chirp tires for the babes. - MagicalTrevor (who also provided "Muscu-mascu-matic-mover - for the same as above, but for those without the desire to move the left foot")

The Sweet Clutch-Dropping-Christ McShifterton - BreakMyWindow

Narcoti-flite - Feel like you're soaring above the clouds, even after the heroin wears off! - ranger88

Grind-n-Groan Synchro-b-Gone - POLAR Discontinuuity

Problematic - Scotte

Cryoslide Liquimotion Hydraslushmatic with Arcticgrip Overdrive! - SakinaCabiri

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I tend to think that the inverse is more intuitive for those used to driving a manual, but I may be in the minority there. We could agree, however, that transmissions that include the paddles/buttons on the steering wheel should be oriented laterally (left/right) as opposed to forward/back. Wes ran into this problem with the 2009 BMW X6, which required pushing or pulling with no regard for horizontal layout, causing much confusion. Which is right? Why is Wes wrong? Why am I wrong? Why, why, why, why, why!?!

As it turned out, this is a ridiculously easy swap (well, by the standards of weird engine swaps, that is). The 5-speed shifter even lined up perfectly with the hole for the Volvo's automatic shifter. A bit of crossmember modification and it was in place.


What really had us worried was the potential nightmare of rigging up clutch linkage. We grabbed a Volvo clutch pedal and cable assembly out of a manual-trans 244 at the junkyard and settled down for what threatened to be agony-packed days of fabrication.


But no! The Volvo cable hooked right up to the Ford transmission and worked fine. We were stunned. Of course, all the time we saved on this project was promptly eaten up by a thousand other details, but we aren't complaining. We forgot to grab a shift boot in the junkyard, so we fabricated a crude bracket and zip-tied a piece of inner-tube rubber in place. Now if we can just keep from breaking U-joints and differentials at the track...

1.) It offers the same collection of modes as SMG, allowing the driver to dial in a range of response patterns, from low-torque, second-gear starts on snow and ice, to comfort, to track day.

2.) It's the first dual-clutch box to be designed for engine speeds of up to 9,000 rpm, with a transmission fluid cooler to lengthen component life.

3.) Like the new Nissan GTR (but unlike the latest F1 cars), it has launch control. How does launch control work? Take it, BMW:

...all the driver has to do with the car at a standstill and in driving program S6 is move the sports shift lever to the front and hold it in this position. Then, as soon as the starter flag symbol comes on in the instrument cluster, the driver just presses down the gas pedal to automatically obtain the ideal starting speed on the engine. Pressing down the brake pedal lightly with his left foot, in turn, the driver can prevent the car from rolling forward, and by briefly tipping the cruise control lever he is able to finely adjust the desired starter speed. Then, after letting go the selector lever, the BMW M3 accelerates with optimum performance and with slip on the rear wheels controlled by the clutch — if the driver wishes, all the way to top speed.

5.) It sounds like a whole lot more fun than SMG.

...and one of the best things about Lee Auto (which has been my main source of parts and advice since I was a young hoon with my very first car) is that the place is a freakin' gearhead museum. They've got a creaky wooden floor, plaques from East Bay car clubs going back to the 1920s on the walls, 1950s and 1960s stickers completely covering the parts counter, yellowed photos of store-sponsored race cars at the old Fremont Dragstrip, and this vintage Hurst display right up front, where it's been since the Hurst rep dropped it off during Eisenhower's presidency. Just to make it all the more awesome, these are 3-speed shifters! Stay tuned for a major feature on more vintage finds in this treasure trove of automotive history!