Same guy who did the “Witch Doctor” songs (name escapes me). He had a machine that sped up human language, and wasn’t afraid to use it!
I think that machine was called a “tape recorder”, record yourself at 3 3/4 inches per second and play it back at 7 1/2 inches per second and you sound sort of like those irritating singing chipmunks.
Safer than inhaling helium.
There is a winery near me named “3 Squirrels”. The name makes me think of the 3 cylinders powering some of my cars. Yes, 3 cylinders have an odd sound as they aren’t inherently balanced. I kinda like it and it is quite the conversation starter.
I agree that a hybrid electric system has great promise for replacing transmissions altogether. Why has this been used for years and years in locomotives and such but not cars? Is it that the upfront cost wouldn’t have been recovered until recently unless you had a large load/long distance where it really pays off?
I also mentioned the DDCT automated manuals. Do others here feel this might catch on if they work out the bugs? It seems this is the best of all worlds since there is no parasitic torque converter to rob power and mileage. Even some of the CVT transmissions still use a torque converter. I know the one used on small cars such as the Mirage, Versa, and the like has a two speed auto coupled to a torque converter feeding into the CVT unit. This allows for a high range and a low range. The complexity and relatively low cost of the units makes them considered “non-rebuildable” so you just replace them. I guess these work well in small cars but once you put some power to them, they just don’t hold up very well.
If they could work out the bugs with the DDCT units, I think these would be great. I think the issue isn’t the theory but the implementation. I know of many problems including high failure rates. I know of a family with all Fords and replacing them seems to be a 30,000 mile service item. At least Ford extended the warranty for them. The same or similar unit is used in other makes of cars with similar problems. The dual clutch nature of these also means synchronizers are not needed.
Also, why aren’t automatic transmissions fitted with fill/drain plugs as well as a spin-on external filter? I know someone here brought this up a while back and there are some but mainly in industrial applications.
Why can’t they share the engine oil, the way most motorcycle transmissions do?
Okay, I guess that I am the only one in this group who remembers Ross Bagdasarian, who recorded the Witch Doctor song, and later, the Alvin & The Chipmunks novelties. His stage name was David Seville.
I remember those annoying songs, but I had to google his real name so it didn’t count.
With a name like that, no wonder he used a stage name. It’s what you do when your real name is John Deutschendorf, Robert Zimmerman, Leonard Sly, or Marion Morrison.
@B.L.E. Having the transmission and the engine share the same oil was tried by Chrysler Corporation back in the early 1950s. Some Chrysler models, the 1953 Dodge equipped with GyroTorque and the 1953 Plymouth equipped with HyDrive used this set-up. These cars used a torque converter as opposed to a fluid coupling. The Dodge and Chrysler had the semi-automatic lift and clunk transmissions where one accelerated to about 15 mph , let up on the accelerator, and the transmission shifted. The Plymouth had a 3 speed manual box, but the torque converter allowed one to start off in high gear. The Chrysler products with this set up didn’t work very well and the wisdom at this time was to avoid these models. The Chryslers with the fluid coupling and the semi-automatic box and the Dodge with the Gyro Matic semi-automatic worked o.k. as the engine and transmission did not share the same fluid. The Austin 850 and Morris 850 which came along here in the U.S. had manual transmissions that shared the oil with the engines. These cars were the forerunner of the Mini Cooper that is sold today. The Morris and Austin 850s were fun to drive, but were not very reliable.
Share fluids? I don’t want to have to change the transmission fluid every 5k-7k miles.
@texases Chrysler actually used this as a selling point about sharing the oil. The normal oil change interval back in the 1950s was 1000 or possiblly 2000 miles. On the models that shared the oil, the interval was extended to 6 months and I believe 6000 miles. The theory was that the rotational force of the torque converter would loosen the dirt particles from the oil and then be trapped by the oil filter. In 1951, Chrysler introduced its hemispherical V-8 engine which has great performance for the time, but was limited by the lift and clunk transmission. Substituting a torque converter for the fluid coupling did help with acceleration from a stop light. The Chrysler was available with a,manual transmission, but in an expensive car, most buyers wanted an automatic. By 1951, both Ford and Chevy offered an automatic transmission. The best Plymouth could offer up in 1953 was the HyDrive. It retained the clutch, but the torque converter allowed high gear starts. Finally, by 1954 Chrysler had available in all its lines a fully automatic transmission.
Hey, I remember the Witch Doctor and its been going through my head now for a while. I didn’t remember and maybe never knew the name of the guy though, just the song. Not allowing the use of Goggle though is like tying the hands of a Frenchman so he can’t talk.
He used the stage name “David Seville” to appear as WASPy as possible. Dean Martin, among you many others, did the same thing at that time. People are a little more tolerant of other ethnic backgrounds today.
Wealthy Anglo Saxon Protestants?
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, but you got the gist. The Country Club set.
^
No!
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants…
I agree with jtsanders that Mr. Bagdasarian probably perceived a lot of anti-Armenian prejudice in the '50s and '60s, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that he used the stage name of David Seville in order to further his career.
Heck, as recently as the 70s, Steven Tallarico changed his last name to “Tyler,” and David Roth in the 80s added a “Lee” to his name to disguise ethnicity.
We have mostly Ford and GM in our fleet, and I’d say maybe 1/2 of them have drain plugs
All Allison automatic transmission have drain plugs. The smaller 1000 series have an external spin-on filter, in addition to the internal filter and a reusable pan gasket. Very user-friendly
Some Toyota automatic transmissions now have a fill plug and a drain plug. But you have to be within the correct temperature range, at which point a light will blink.
All of the Benz trans pans I ever saw had a drain plug
All of my Toyotas always had a drain plug
We’ve owned a few Mazdas, and they had drain plugs
GM is a coin-toss. All of the 4L80E trans and most of the newer 4L60E trans have that dent in the pan, where the drain plug should be. About 1/2 of the 4L80E trans have the drain plug. Very few of the 4L60E trans have the drain plug. The rest just tease you with the dent.
“Here we’re going to tease you with what we COULD have done, but we decided to save some money, and let you drop a pan full of hot atf”
Ford seems more generous. If they don’t have it, at least they don’t tease you with the dent where it “should” be
I assume the dent is there to avoid another set of stamping dies. We’ve had the conversation before and as long as you have to pull the pan anyway to change the filter, what difference does it make if it has a drain or not. Except for DIYers like me that do it in their garage. That’s why I used to keep big sheets of card board though. I don’t do it any more though.
Update: The 0-60 data for the Camaros as posted above by @FoDaddy were from articles published in 2015, and appear to be estimates, not instrumented tests. C&D has recently published an instrumented test for the Manual V6 version, showing a 0-60 time of 5.1 seconds, matching the estimated 0-60 time for the automatic. To confirm that it is possible for the same car to post both improved or equal mpg and 0-60 times in the automatic configuration compared to the manual transmission, seems we’ll have to await C&D’s instrumented test for the automatic version.
“long as you have to pull the pan anyway to change the filter, what difference does it make if it has a drain or not.”
With all due respect, ARE YOU KIDDING ME . . . ?! 
It makes all the difference in the world, removing a pan full of hot atf, quite possibly at a very awkward angle (to clear components), versus an empty pan
Yes . . . we’ve been through this many times before, and I think it’s clear you just can’t, or won’t, see it my way 