It is correct that the Hydramatic was available in 1940, but I thought it was only an option on the Oldsmobile. The transmission did have four forward speeds. The “Dual Range” came along in 1952. There were two “Drive” positions. One position locked it out of fourth for city driving. However, if one exceeded 70 mph in this range, it would go into fourth gear. This city range was designated with an “S” on the Oldsmobile shift quadrant. There were four speeds partly because there wasn’t a torque converter, but a fluid coupling. The difference is that a.fluid.coupling does not multiply torque as the torque converter does. The Hydramatic was not.only used in the Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Cadillac, but was available in the GMC pickup starting in 1953 and the Chevrolet pickup starting in 1954. The Chevrolet and Buick cars used a completely different type of automatic transmission that depended on a torque converter. Nash, Hudson, Kaiser also uses the GM Hydramatic and surprisingly, it was used by Lincoln beginning in mid 1949. To me, the argument between the Hydramatic with its fluid coupling and four speeds as opposed to the automatic transmissions on other makes with fewer speeds but a torque converter is analogous to today’s discussion between a mulri-speed automatic and a CVT.