[Shotimes] Re: Park vs. Forward (was Autolock and MTX)

[Donald Mallinson]

Carl,

The Turboglide was really not very well known, so few people 
would have probably been reluctant to use low gear because 
of the problems with that tranny.  Chances are your father 
was one that was told another bit of auto lore:

Brakes are designed to slow down a car and motors to make it 
go, let each do their own job and the car will last longer!

Of coures with drum brakes (and mechanical brakes before 
them) lower gears had to be used in cars as well as trucks.

Funny how some habits happen though.  Here is another:

I had a good friend that would never use the heater all the 
time in the winter.  He said the car would get better gas 
mileage if he kept the heater off.  Well, I knew better than 
that, even when I was 15 and 16 years old.  But a bit later, 
I found out WHY my friend probably felt that way.

His father obviously grew up driving cars that had the very 
good, but fairly rare optional heater system that used 
gasoline in a heater inside the car!  So you had a FIRE 
inside the car in a little space heater before good hot 
water heaters were common.

Thus turning off THAT type of heater DID save fuel, 
especially during the depression, my friends father probably 
wanted ever drop of fuel saved, and comfort was secondary, 
so he taught his son to do the same, even though hot water 
heaters have zero (or near zero, the fan pulls some juice 
and thus a tiny amount of drag via the generator/alternator 
on the motor) effect on fuel mileage.

So as Paul Harvey would say: Now you know the rest of the story!

Don Mallinson


Carl Prochilo wrote:

> You made me remember things from a long time ago.  I don't remember who I
> asked, probably my father, why he never used the lower gears, I was told
> that they were only to slow the car down going down hill.  I never really
> gave that much thought until I owned my own car.  I know that my family
> never owned a car with a Turboglide transmission, but now it certainly seems
> that a myth grew up around that issue that somehow got extrapolated to all
> automatic transmissions of the 60s to the point that I'm sure none of my
> family's older cars ever saw those gears get used.