<VV>Economy in 1959 NO CORVAIR

[Larry Forman]

Hi Frank,
Then too in the late 50's was the infamous Turboglide which I had in my 59 Impala convertible land yacht.  It was like the Buick Dynaflow and featured an infinite number of gears!  I foolishly installed a tach and it just SAT there when I floored it once it got to maybe 2500 rpms or possibly less.  The engine just sat there and the car kept increasing in speed without much tach movement.  The engine was a 348 which became the 409 for racing.  It also had on the shift selector a position between L and D which was labeled as GR, which I always said stood for GRRRRR!  It was actually Grade Retard, so you could go down a steep grade and drop it into GR and if you were lucky, did not break the rear wheels loose, and just turned all the engine output into heat for the transmission!  Once I dropped it into GR when slowing down and pulling onto a huge gravel lot.  I did a donut before I could think about it as the rear wheels broke loose slowing down in the lower gear.

Larry