Re: Asking the men and women who own one...

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2009/4/5 0:22:47

Mikec wrote, "having just gotten back from a nice day of springtime packarding on some back roads with steep hills, i am thoroughly impressed with the ultramatic. shifting into low and using the lockup to engine brake is so cool, plus it is very controllable.

Owen, i would have to say locked up, because there is no slippage. the tranny input shaft is locked tightly to the engine instead of being allowed to rotate with slippage."

Mikec and Owen - I, too, enjoy driving my '55 Pat for the engine braking power of the T/U when the direct drive clutch is locked up. Although the hill is not steep enough to downshift into low, there is a hill with an "S" curve at the bottom close by my house. My former car, a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis, had to be braked if coming off of this hill in "Drive" (because, evidently it was in automatic overdrive, to maintain a safe 40 mph speed down the hill and through the curve. In the Packard I can come off the top of the hill at 40, take my foot off the accelerator and the car will maintain the 40 mph to the bottom of the hill and I can power through the "S" curve without having to use the brakes. It had been so many years, when I first got the car, since I'd been able to do this in a car equipped with an automatic tranny that I'd almost forgotten about it. The two Infinitis that I'd owned had a semblance of it while the American cars equipped with auto trannys with automatic overdrive invariably gained speed on downhill grades when left in normal "Drive." The engine braking is much more pronounced with the T/U than with even the Infinitis and I like it - having grown to adulthood being used to using engine braking as much as possible to avoid fade on the drum brakes of that day. It is one of the things that I enjoy about the T/U. Although not an important consideration when driving newer cars with anti-lock disc brakes, it brings back the heightened experience of actually having to semi-understand the machinery under you and being part of the driving experience rather than just putting the thing in gear, turning the steering wheel and using the brake and accelerator pedals.

Just another old guy reliving his youth and revelling, a little, at actually having to drive a car again.