History of hot rods and automatics

[47bob]

Another good reason they ran autos in the supercharged gas classes was that they didnt miss shifts and float the valves. You don't want to float valves with a blower...........Bob

[286merc]

Originally Posted by old beet

I remember them 50 Oldsmobiles had a lot of respect on the street racing scene in the 50s. I had a 3 carb flatty in a shoebox Ford, and they would run away from me. The Olds would just raise up in the rear and GO!!!....OLDBEET

That rear end lift used to really shake up the bottom draggers back then! First time anybody saw a coil spring rear.

I had a 49 Olds coupe that started with a stock 303 and single range hydro. After blowing 2 trannies I swapped in a 56 324 and dual range. Turns out it was a piece of shit Jetaway as the donor car was a 98.
After saving a few bucks I got a B&M around 59 that had very little use and the price was good.
The engine was big, the tranny was fast and the car was light. It ate just about anything it came against on the street and paid for itself in no time.

My friends dad owned High Performance Engineering on LI and he had a 300C ragtop that was not exactly stock. I ran him one day just to see how bad that car was. I never got my ass whipped so bad before or after! What a friggin car.

Man, do I miss the days of street racing when it was fun to be young!!

[warbird]

My "A" roadster is still running the early single-range Hydro that was put into it back in the early '60's. And I remember an older guy that was running a '63 Plymouth Golden Commando down at the Arlington Dragstrip in the mid 60's, complete with push-button Torqueflite. One hell of a fast car for the day. So performance automatics have had a following since at least the early 60's.

[50Fraud]

So-called "beefed Hydros" started showing up in the mid-50s, but they were kind of a black art and only a few technoids understood how to build them. A guy in our high school car club put a 303 Olds and a beefed early Hydro in his '49 Chevy 4-door (circa '57); cruising with him was huge fun because the car really flew and was a complete sleeper. Don't think he ever lost a street race.

B&M introduced the HydroStick in the late '50s -- I bought the ninth one made in 1959, and replaced the LaSalle in my Olds to the HUGE benefit of the car's launch. B&M was not the first, but they were the best because they were the guys who figured out how to manually control all three shifts.

Dick Harryman and some others started racing B&M Hydros in B/Gas Supercharged Olds' around that time, and WON! Soon most of the Gassers were switching over to B&Ms, simply because it was the fast setup. Seems to me that, by the end of the Gasser Wars, Stone/Woods and Mazmanian and all those guys were using them.

And, as somebody has already pointed out, I think the Mopar automatics of '64 or so brought in the era of competitive automatics from the factory.

[slayer]

I think automatics gained popularity first with drag racers, mostly super stock , when thay realized thay could run quicker and more consistant. By the tome pro stock became a class( '71 I think) four speeds were starting to loose faver.Once thay were acceptable in racing hot rodders began to accept them two.

[Harms Way]

Originally Posted by Bigcheese327

They've gained acceptance??? WTF?

Yep! , Sure did,........

[jn6047]

I'm surprized no one mentioned the SWC and Big J. Maz's Willys' with hydros. The SWC later run a 727. Nothing wrong with an auto, that's what my rod is going to have.

jn6047

[Cris]

As far as street cars go, in the TRJ article about Chet Herbert (wheelchair-bound roller cam pioneer) they show a car that he built with an automatic and it implies that it could have been one of the first. Don't have the mag right here, but it seemed like the case was being made that this car had a lot of details that foretold the birth of street rods as opposed to hot rods...does anyone else remember reading this or was it about another builder?

Cris

[Richard D]

This is a good old thread to bring back. Anyone have some home-brew Hydro-Stick type mods to share? Wonder how one would fare in a street-strip application. I know high stall converters aren't the ticket for street duty...

[wingspread7]

In July, 1963, Orange County Dragway, near Jacksonville, Fla. I became a believer in automatics: "The Reverend Mr. Black", a new black Mopar came to the line and I watched the driver reach up to the left corner of the dash and push a button. As the front tires held it, the whole care hunkered down like a big cat ready to spring. I stood in disbelief watching the rear wheels doing crazy little 1/4 & 1/2 turn slips on the pavement until the green light. It was like watching a movie sped up when he left! He won top eliminator against everything that ran that day.
Chuck