More Legends of Drag Racing

[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by Tom Goldman

Bill, I never weighed a Hydro,but I've lifted a bunch over the years,and worse, I had one fall on my chest when I was putting it in my '50 Olds! ...Man that thing was heavy!
Whole lot of cast iron in those babys.

I weighed mine when I had one in my sedan delivery. I weighed the bell housing, transmission (ready to race), flywheel, torus cover and both torus members, and the total for all that cast iron was...

TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY CHEST-CRUSHING POUNDS.


Gravity always wins....

As the Dual Range Hydros were being ushered out of popularity, I HEARD that Cal Hydro had an aluminum case for that transmission, and that SOMEBODY had fabbed a 2.20 rear planetary to replace the 2.63 that was in (as I understand it) every Hydro that was ever built.... giving ratios of 3.19:1, 2.20:1, 1.45:1 and 1:1. Not bad, for a light car with a big engine.... But, they needed some alulminum rotating parts, too, such as clutch drums for the bands to wrap around.

In a parallel universe, maybe...