eCVT vs. Dynaflow

[GreenBlackFFH]

Many years ago when I was a kid, our family had an old 1956 Buick with a Dynaflow automatic transmission. It always fascinated me because it never seemed to shift gears like the automatic in our Mercury did. Later I found that this was because the Dynaflow was basically a torque converter on steroids, and relied on torque multiplication in the hydraulic coupler to get the "lower gears". The other day I was thinking that the user feel of the Dynaflow must have been much like the eCVT in the FFH, although the technologies are, of course, completely different. I was too young to drive back then, but has anyone with an FFH ever driven a Dynaflow-equipped Buick? If so, how do they compare as to feel, etc.?

Edited April 21, 2011 by GreenBlackFFH

[lolder]

Many years ago when I was a kid, our family had an old 1956 Buick with a Dynaflow automatic transmission. It always fascinated me because it never seemed to shift gears like the automatic in our Mercury did. Later I found that this was because the Dynaflow was basically a torque converter on steroids, and relied on torque multiplication in the hydraulic coupler to get the "lower gears". The other day I was thinking that the user feel of the Dynaflow must have been much like the eCVT in the FFH, although the technologies are, of course, completely different. I was too young to drive back then, but has anyone with an FFH ever driven a Dynaflow-equipped Buick? If so, how do they compare as to feel, etc.?

Yes, I did in a Buick Special and in a Century Twin-Turbine Dynaflow. The experience is almost identical except there are no losses in the eCVT. I often compare the FFH to the smoothness of the old Dynaflow. I sometimes "Dragged" to 60 mph with the straight 8 Special and left it in low. Boy did it wind up. It stayed with my girlfriends Chrysler 300. When the new 6 speeds, etc. shift at full throttle, they drop from say 6000 rpm or so down to maybe 4500 and you can feel the HP loss. Not so when you pass from say 40 mph to 90 mph in the FFH.

Edited April 21, 2011 by lolder

[ctrcbob]

Yes, I'm old enough (darn) to have driven the Dynaflow Buicks from the late 40's and early 50's, plus I also had a 2005 Ford Freestyle AWD which had the German Made CVT Transmission. The sensation was the same. The engine revs, and the car catches up. (Note that only the AWD 2005 Freestyle had the CVT while the FWD 2005 Freestyle had the Aisin 6 Speed Transmission).