Q777 Supercharged Cobra - Powerglide transmission

Auto or Manual???

You can't put an auto in a Cobra, can you?

I bought a strong, rebuilt bullnose toploader to run in the car, but I just couldn't get any assurances from anyone that it would last more than the first day's driving. I figured that I could sell it while it's still perfect, rather than trying to sell a damaged trans later. I have looked at Tremec's T56 and 3550 TKO2, Jerico, Doug Nash, Holinger and G-Force transmissions in the hope of keeping three pedals in the car. When I win the lotto, I'll definitely be installing a G-Force GF5R trans.

For the moment, I just couldn't go past the strength / cost ratio of a Powerglide 2 speed auto. Tony Harrington is an acknowledged expert in getting these gearboxes to live behind many 1000hp+ race cars, so I wasn't asking for anything out of the ordinary when I went to see him. He also ownsUltratune Indooroopilly in Brisbane

The torque convertor on the other hand, was a bit of a headache for all concerned. A race-only convertor is easy to build, because you just build it to reach a certain stall speed at full throttle, and that's all that matters. The problem with using a racing convertor on the street is that under ANY load at all, the convertor will flash to it's nominated stall speed. If you're driving along a flat bit of road, as soon as you come to a hill, the convertor will flare to 5000rpm.... Not a nice way to drive a street car! The next problem was actually making the convertor lock up on the highway, but still work under full throttle. Apparently, it's hard to get a convertor to lock up at say 3000rpm when you have lots of torque. If you're driving along the highway at 3000rpm with no boost, you might only be making 200lb/ft torque. Hit the throttle and the boost comes on, then you're making 400lb/ft, this makes the convertor flare more. When the convertor flares, you engine revs more - more revs equals more boost - more boost equals more torque, more torque equals more convertor flare, more convertor flare equals more rpm, etc, etc. It just keeps feeding off itself. Between Tony, Phil Soderstrom and Torque Convertor Engineering, they decided to use a convertor based on what has worked with Haddad's Vortech powered street car.

Fingers crossed!

Back to main page