[bill dedman]

While not universal in their application, the importance of the adoption of the automatic transmission during the Gasser movement was notable, I think.
Before the Gasser era, it was hard to find a purpose-built race car on a drag strip, with an automatic transmission of any kind.

When the really fast Olds-powered supercharged Gasser of Pitman-Edwards started running times down in the low 11s and high 10's, B & M started selling a transmission for drag cars called a "Hydro-Stick," which was based on the Dual-Range HydraMatic that was OEM in Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs (and, other applications too numerous to mention, here.) The '41 Willys of Pitman-Edwards apparently was B & M's "mule-car."

Those blown Oldsmobiles had too much torque and horsepower for the Cad-Lasalle and Lincoln Zephyr 3-speed transmissions of the day, and clutch technology wasn't advanced to the point that conventional discs and pressure plates were up to the job of harnessing 600horsepower effectively, so the guys running the blown cars experimented with the automatics and found them to their liking.

B & M had a weekly ad in Drag News featuring one of a group of West Coast cars, spreading the word that these "Hydro Stick" automatics were getting the job done in some REALLY powerful (for the day) cars. Other transmission builders followed suit,and soon, a large percentage of the blown Gassers were running these 4-speed automatics. The penetration of Hydro Sticks into the normally-aspirated Gassers wasn't as successful, partially because the T-10 manual 4-speed was coming into its own at that time, and was capable of handling the power from a lot of the unblown cars of the day. The gear ratios in the Hydros were nothing to write home about, and they were cast iron (heavy!) but they seemed to have the necessary torque-holding capability to handle just about anything a GMC-blown Olds or Chrysler Hemi could throw at them.

Companies modifying them flourished as the top runners of the day in the supercharged Gasser classes bought and succesfully used tons of them.... I remember names like B & M, C & O Hydro, Bee Line Automatics, Hydro-Motive,and Cal Hydro... can't believe how many I've forgotten!

But the Hydro's competition was making progress with the development of the high-stall torque converter, and the 3-speed automatics such as Chrysler's TorqueFlite and G.M.'s Turbo 400 loomed large on the horizon in about 1965-66. The HydraMatics had always been plagued with traction problems due to the deep (3.87:1) first gear. The "new" 3-speed automatics had a more manageable 2.45 or 2.48 first gear; now, a loose torque converter coupled with that taller first gear provided more consistent launches and better e.t.'s.

Almost overnight, the aluminum T-Flites and Turbo Hydros replaced the aging cast iron HydraMatics in these blown Gassers.

About the same time,altered wheelbase F/X cars caught the attention of fans and, the following transition from A/FX to Funny Car was pretty swift.

Virtually all of those A/FX cars that morphed into fledgling Funny Cars used automatic transmissions. There were some exceptions, but they were minimal.

But, the Gassers had paved the way with years of R & D, and that fact shouldn't be forgotten!