Chrysler's SECRET Weapon | The Transmission That Tried to Kill the 4-Speed

The B&M Clutch-Flite was a Chrysler 727 TorqueFlite with the torque converter sawed off and a clutch bolted in its place, and Chrysler spent over one hundred thousand dollars and an entire secret engineering program trying to make it win. Bob and Donald Spar patented it in 1967. Take a 727, cut the front off, bolt on a flywheel and a clutch. The problem is that a TorqueFlite's oil pump is driven by the engine through the torque converter — take the converter out and the pump has nothing turning it, and the transmission becomes a very heavy aluminum paperweight. Their answer was a part they called the pump-drive spider, and it let you put the car in gear before the clutch ever engaged. B&M's catalog put it in four words: allows unlimited starting line rpm. In 1970 the NHRA launched Pro Stock, and Chrysler had a problem that had nothing to do with horsepower. Their entire roster grew up on automatics, and the new class belonged to four-speed cars. So Chrysler ordered a Dodge Challenger off the assembly line with paperwork designating it the "Dept. 1277 automatic transmission test and development car." That car became the Motown Missile, and its first mission was not winning races. It was proving that a transmission with a clutch pedal and no gear stick could beat men rowing gears. It set a national record at Indy at 9.98. Then it couldn't stage, because a 727 has no rear pump, so it can't be push-started, and the starter had failed. Chrysler built a secret six-speed version with two TorqueFlites bolted nose to tail and two shifters in the car, then killed it themselves for being heavier and slower. And every star driver in Pro Stock refused to run it, because admitting you needed the transmission to shift for you meant admitting you weren't Ronnie Sox. Everyone says the NHRA banned it. NHRA's own 1970 Pro Stock rules say "Any stock-type transmission acceptable." There was never a ban and never a weight penalty. What killed it was Leonard Abbott's Lenco, and the high-stall torque converter, which was invented by B&M. The same company that built the Clutch-Flite to get rid of the torque converter got rich selling better torque converters. It didn't get outlawed. It got out-engineered by its own father. #MoparHistory #DragRacing #ProStock #MotownMissile #TransmissionTech ------------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer We do not fully own the material compiled in this video. It belongs to individuals or organizations that deserve respect. We use under: Copyright disclaimer section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976. "fair use" is allowed for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching. scholarships and research. ----------------------------------------- #automobile #luxurycars #musclecars #speed&style