dynaflow

[Dave Ventresca]

I know I have read it before, but can't find the topic. didn't the hydramatic plant burn down around May  or June of '53, or was it earlier? Dave

[Quentin Hall]

G'day Dave. Hope you are well. Was looking at a pic of your car the other day on the net somewhere. The Hydramatic plant burnt down on Aug 12 53. Same day that my azure #412 was built. I read somewhere that at the time it was the biggest industrial fire in US history. All remaining Eldos and Series 75s had Hydramatics. The changeover nos was somewhere about 536285000 . Paul Allen will tell us exactly shortly. Q

[Jay Friedman]

GM marques besides Cadillac coped in different ways.  Oldsmobile increased the proportion of cars built with a manual transmission and also used Dynaflow.  Pontiac did the same with Chevrolet's Powerglide.  Kaiser let GM use one of their plants to re-start Hydramatic production and the story goes that GM rewarded Kaiser by allocating the first transmissions produced there to Kaiser cars. 

[R Sotardi #11719]

Very good, Jay. Also,for Hudson to get the rights to use Hydra-matics, Hudson shared the rights to the step-down body design patent. Nash/Kelvinator shared the rights to the "Weather Eye" ventilation system. Those companies received the updated versions one year after the GM cars got them, along with  factory tech bulletins and such. Interesting point, Do you remember the pride of Sarajevo, the YUGO. Well the Yugos company( I dare not speak Slavic) did not "sign up" for those tech upgrades from FIAT. The Yugo was essentially a 128 Fiat. Since Yugo tried to cheap out, Fiat never sent them info for free... oops. At least that's what I read. Ron

[Dave Ventresca]

thanks, Q for the reply, reason I wondered is cuz there is a 53 Cad sedan all original on ebay with a dynaflow, and one of the pics shows delivered in La Canada , Ca. dealership  in April of 53. maybe phoney  paperwork?? Dave

[P W Allen CLC# 20193]

Hey all, the first Dynaflow 53 Cadillac had engine # 84800. Now, I've done a lot of research on this subject and there is one remaining question that I'm not positive about. I know that GM began producing Hydramatics again in record time after the fire and all the 54's were Hydramatics. I've always assumed that the remaining 53's after #84800 all got the Dynaflows until the end of the model run (except the Eldorado's and 75 series). Does anybody know for sure if that is so? Or did at least some of the very late 53's get the Hydramatic again once they became available in sufficient numbers? My thoughts are that most likely they finished up the 53 model year with the Dynaflow and started the new 54 run with the Hydramatics.

[Jay Friedman]

Ron,

Thanks for that interesting info which I'd not heard before.  Sounds like GM played hardball with Nash and Hudson.  Lincoln used Hydramatic from 1949 until '54 and Rolls Royce used the first version of Hydramatic until the mid-'60s.  I wonder if GM also made them give up patent rights or something similar. 

[R Schroeder]

Here is the web site for it.

http://www.autotran.us/TheGreatHydraMaticFire.html

[Roger Zimmermann]

I've always assumed that the remaining 53's after #84800 all got the Dynaflows until the end of the model run (except the Eldorado's and 75 series). Does anybody know for sure if that is so? Or did at least some of the very late 53's get the Hydramatic again once they became available in sufficient numbers?

The fire was on August 12. Nine weeks later, the new plant was ready to resume production. This lead us to mid-October. I doubt that '53 models were still build at that date; I did not find that detail.