<VV> Smitty beats most everybody.

[Tony Underwood]

At 06:29 PM 2/24/2011, James P. Rice wrote:

>PSS:  One of the main reasons Corvairs got beat in their very first ever
>road race was because they had 3-speeds and the Falcons and Ramblers had
>4-speeds.  Multiple gears matter.  Oh. wait, that's the historian speaking.
>Oops.  Sorry.  Actually, no I'm not!!




Not to pick...

But when did Falcons have a 4-speed gearbox before 'Vairs?   By the 
time Falcons were available with 4-speeds, Corvairs had already had 
them a year.   Ford rushed the Falcon 4-speed into production in 
order to compete with the Corvairs that had 4-speeds, and to do it 
they had to use an English 4-speed with a case casting that had a 
Ford small bellhousing bolt pattern.

It was a light transmission, think it was originally for an 
Anglia.  I could pick one up and lift it up over my shoulder with one 
arm.   It was not the most durable gearbox ever... the Falcon 
6-banger would bust it with ease.   And did.   A holeshot in an early 
Falcon with even the little 6 (144) would shear teeth off the cluster 
gear if the car had any sort of tire on back.    My buddy up the 
street from high school days had a sweet little Falcon his dad bought 
new.   Very clean, straight, baby blue, went everywhere in 
it.   Wayne HAD to have a 4-speed... original 3 speed was simply not 
cool enough.

It was a mistake.   He managed to turn up a 4-speed and got it in the 
car.   It broke in less than a week.   Another 4-speed... broke 
it.   A 3rd.  This as you could guess began to get expensive...  he 
resorted back to 3 speeds because there were no more 4-speeds in the 
local junkyards.   He started breaking them too, since by this time 
he'd gotten some tires on the back.   After a couple more 3-speeds 
and at least one more 4-speed, he'd had enough.

By the time he gave up and put a 302 with a T-10 in the Falcon (I 
spent a weekend with him at the machine shop where he worked 
fabricating various bits and pieces to make all THAT work out), there 
was a pile of busted 3 and 4 speed gearboxes in back of Wayne's 
house, stacked like cordwood by the shed.   I am serious... there 
must have been a dozen or more.


Keep in mind that Ford was supplying Rambler's smaller cars with 
manual transmissions at that time (Chrysler,GM, and B-W (later, Ford) 
was supplying them with automatics) and the only way a Rambler got a 
4-speed in '62 was if Ford sent it to them in the form of that 
English thing.   If 'Vairs were getting outrun in those road races, 
it sure wasn't because of the transmissions of the day.   The 
Ford-import 4-speeds would have broken before the race was 
over.   Likewise any Mopar compacts, which didn't get 4-speeds til 
'63 (T-10) and didn't get their own (A833) in-house 4-speed until 
'64... unless you count that ultra-rare sweet shifting French 
4-speed  gearbox that went into some earlier Chrysler 300s.    In 
fact, the Mopar compact-car 3-speed wasn't much better than the Ford 
compact 3-speed and tended to shed a tooth or two off the cluster if 
you horsewhipped it.   Never saw a Mopar 3-speed in a Rambler...  did 
see T-10s in later V8 Ramblers though.


It wasn't the lack of a 4-speed that caused any roadrace 
injustices.  In fact, Corvairs had 4-speeds "regular" before any of 
the other compacts in the USA.   And, I know for a fact that an early 
Corvair gearbox, 3-speed or otherwise, was more durable than the 
competition at the time.


...just thought I'd mention it.



tony..

PS:   Chrysler and Ford turned the tables on beefiness with their own 
4-speeds, A833 and Toploader, both of which are legendary for 
strength and durability