John DeLorean was recruited by Packard Engineering in 1953, DeLorean and his team delivered a new “Twin-Ultramatic” transmission for the 1955 Packards and one year later they created the “Touch Button Ultramatic“ version.

Buried in a wooden shipping crate at America’s Packard Museum is a transmission with a story nobody tells.

the Packard transmission team recognized an opportunity to improve the transmission. 

After multiple years of testing and refinement Packard announced the availability of their automatic transmission which they christened the “Ultramatic Drive”. 

It’s worth noting that the transmission was designed and manufactured using entirely in-house engineering resources – something that no other American independent automaker would accomplish. 

As delivered, the transmission combined a fluid coupled torque converter for smoothness with a two speed axial drive. This provide the owner with two power ranges; a high range for normal driving plus a low range suitable for driving at low speeds through mud and snow. Additionally the engineering team created a lock up feature in the torque converter that improved fuel economy at highway speeds. The next time you drive your automobile remember to thank Packard engineering for this innovation – it continues to be used in automatic transmissions to this day. 

On May 31, 1949 the first production Packard with Ultramatic made the drive from Detroit, Michigan to Indianapolis, Indiana

Over the next several years the Packard Engineering team set about improving the transmission.

When John DeLorean joined the team he was presented with a problem. Packard customers thought their cars accelerated slowly when the transmission was used with the normal high range. Slow enough that some Packard owners were using the low range to accelerate away from a traffic light and then manually “shifting” the transmission to the high range. Yes, manually shifting from the low range to the high range produced better acceleration but it would also damage the transmission after a while

This resulted in a second version of the transmission called the “Gear-Start Ultramatic Drive” which was made available with 1954 Packards. While it still had two ranges – low and high – it included a third option that would start in the transmission in the low range and then automatically shift to the high range as the car gained speed. 

This significantly improved vehicle acceleration from a standing start and made Packard customers much happier.

This fantastic update included push button control of the transmission. It was quite the swan song for Packard and a big win for DeLorean’s team.

this resulted in DeLorean being promoted to replace McFarland as the Head of Research and Development at Packard

https://packardprovinggrounds.org/john-delorean-and-the-fantastic-ultramatic-drive

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10236550522675680&set=a.1590567076712

factory equipment on a 1957 Chrysler 300C included wheel chocks. I kid you not.

at minute 3:47 in the video

These were included as standard because the 300C's automatic transmission didn't have a parking mode, thus relying on neutral and the emergency brake to stand still.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/perfectly-restored-1957-chrysler-300c-hides-a-rare-revolutionary-feature-that-failed-197742.html#

I just noticed something, and it's a bit odd. But, the numbers in an old AM radio, exactly correspond to the positions in an old 3 speed transmission. If someone figured out how to pull it off nicely, PRND21 could replace 5,8,10,12,14,16

yes, I see that this automatic has a reverse manual valve body, and the shifter gear indicator is accordingly adapted, don't get distracted with that on my little conceptual notion here. 

IF a person were to be a bit daffy, and want to make a strange custom feature on some car that was going to be on the show circuit, couldn't you see a push button transmission, unlike any other, as no one has ever done this thing I'm postulating, as using the AM radio dial and buttons to select the transmission gear? 

Just reprint a dial for the radio, and have is display PRND21 instead of the radio frequencies. 

Then push the button for the gear you want. 

Since no one uses 1 or 2 anyway, as automatic type people just select drive, reverse, or park, there would need to be some sorting out of the 5 buttons of am AM radio. Or just find one mane with only 4 buttons. 

one of the few non Mopars with a Typerwriter/Pushbutton transmission. Mercury Monterey

One old Fury

 That is likely the most reflected grill I've seen. The bumper has ribs and bounces the lines a lot.

 Looks like a hood ornament, on the trunk. I know, weird. The design for the reverse and brake lights leaves a lot to be desired to. Like one more pair of lights

Pinstriping and pushbuttons

More cool things I photographed at the Beatnik Blowout

Vise grips for handles.. .I like that

black and purple interior looks awesome

Not many people do this type of beautiful paint on the dash.. this is really nice

A center console arm rest.... good idea!

cool eagle pieces.. they remind me of the eagles on firemen helmets

Double 1940 brake lights .. that's new

the far left gauge is a compass... I like that it's looking retro, probably isn't factory, but looks damn good

This car has gotten a lot of magazine publicity, and internet coverage this summer, and it deserves it.

These kids were just passing time in their parents car, amazing. I wouldn't have thought that anyone would let 5 kids hang out unwatched in a nice car.