4 speeds for 55-56 chevrolet superstockers

[76 RACER]

Hi Chuck
I am wondering if the 60 Wagon Graham raced was a N/SA car with a 389 tri-power engine. If so the guy I drove the O/S 61 Pontiac for in 70 and 71 bought the wagon. It was orange with a white top. Car ran great but that damned slim jim trans had a long drawn out high gear shift. I drove his 61 389-235 HP car. Had a ball those two years as a kid. I sold RV-455 BlackStreak Remover to a guy in Ind. and would like to still promote it on the west coast as he made me the dist. out here. You coming to Phoenix for the national Event? Would like to shake your hand and say hello. You racing or still working for someone?

Merry Xmas

Mike Randall

[Chuck Norton]

Tony Janes will have a better recollection of what Douglas's car looked like than I. Seems as if it had a fairly non-descript paint job, at least the first year they ran it.

c

[X-TECH MAN]

Hi....Its me again. No.....Ronnie Broadhead never won a major eliminator ***le. He was the one that started the ball rolling about the hydro's in the "TRUCKS" a.ka. El Camino's in around the eary '60's. Not sure of the exact year. Grahm Douglas Pontiac wagon was a bronze? orange-ish?(Gold?) and white two tone color and he won the winternats using a 318 HP Tri-Power version of the standard 389 (Non-SD). Grahm also beat BIG DADDY Russ Mathews for class that year in what was G/SA. Bill is much better versed along with Chuck than Iam on the west coast cars but those deals are still in my old memory cells. Sorry about hi-jacking the thread also but the old fart came out of me there for a moment. Just to throw some "GAS" on the fire about the subject of 4-speeds in 55-57 Chebbie's we all know that the 55-56 never had it. The '57 Corvette got the 4-speed around Jan or Feb. of 1957. Later when BW-T10 production caught up how many know that when some one ordered a 283/283 HP FI passenger car it was assembly line produced with a 3-speed trans (on the colum) but came with a 4-speed trans and shifter installed in the trunk! Yep....just like the later Z-28s that were ordered with the X-ram intake's and headers. Parts came in the TRUNK. I was 12 or 13 when my uncle got delivery of his .57 FI 150 sedan and the BW-T10 was in a crate right there in the trunk but not for long. It was installed the same day he brought it home and I helped or at least I handed him some wrenches.....lol.. Not assembly line produced like the Corvette but along the same way the early SD Pontiacs came in 60-61. Over the counter so to speak. Have a wonderful holiday everyone. Terry Bell

[Tony Janes]

Terry's memory of the Graham Douglas 60 Pontiac Wagon is correct

[bill dedman]

Mike,
Thanks to you and everybody else for all the good info about the "Pontiaction" (with apologies to Jerry Stealy) that was going on on the West Coast back in the mid-'60s.

I appreciate the nice comments from the X-TechMan about my so-called "expertise" RE the West Coast cars, but I really know VERY LITTLE compared to Chuck Norton and Tony Janes, who were actually there and "lived it".... I never even set foot in California until 1980, and as you know, Jr. Stock action was L-O-N-G G-O-N-E, way before then. Everything I know about that era I read in a magazine, Nat'l Dragster, or Drag News, at the time.

One thing I did manage to remember (can't remember much, at 69...) is that the "Slim Jim" was introduced in the '61 model year cars, and was a 3-speed automatic... probably the worst one ever put in a car... had horrible ratios, and a strictly mechanical 2nd-gear (no fluid coupling in the powertrain circuit in that gear) so that when you shifted into 2nd, you lost ALL the rpm possible... and the 1st-to-2nd ratio change was just traumatic.

I had a drag racing buddy who bought a new '61 Pontiac with one of those transmissions and asked him how it ran, and he said, "Like it's missing a gear!"

The "Strato-Flight" 4-speed, dual-coupling transmission it replaced, was an outgrowth of the Dual Range Hydros, but in an effort to make them shift smoooooooth, they replaced the front clutch-pack / band arrangement with a sprag and a small-diameter fluid coupling (no kidding!!!). Shifting into 2nd and 4th gear was accomplished by filling the front coupling with fluid, which took about a full second, and the engine sounded like a sick cow.while this was going on, but they didn't run that bad... (their ratios were an improvement over the prior "Dual Range" units.) Oldsmobile called 'em "Jetaway" but, it was the same transmission as the one in the Pontiac

Oh yes... the "Slim-Jim" ALSO got into top gear by virtue of filling a small, secondary fluid coupling, but by that time, you were so far behind, you didn't care....

More useless trivia from the '60s....

Thanks again for all the GOOD information!!!

[Robert Simpson]

Mike and Bill that is some info that I did not know. But, I still have a question about the rule. I do not think that NHRA did the rule change based on 55-57 chevys. The rule was obviously made to help the 283's, 327 and 350's, it just so happens that it will help other, lower classed cars ie SS/NA-PA. I realize your point about the turbo came as a option, just not a turbo 350 that we are used to. But, am I correct that a 55-57 came with a three speed manual with a optional overdrive that was in the transmission case? Since the rule just recongnizes same number of forward gears and OD optional would it not be a valid argument for the manual shifts as it would be for the automatic? By the way all these rule changes that have come down over the years has not been to enhance racing, it is to "simplify" the teching. And to allow combinations that have recently been torn down and realized that they were claiming a powerglide combination BUT, was running a turbo and stated that it came in the other year engine that he was claiming ie 67 350/powerglide vs 69 350/turbo. My point remains if this transmission rule continues then why can a 55-57 not get a 4sp manual?