My car has 3 pedals

[Hilltop366]

Ford had a small car not that long ago that had a automatic start and stop and shifting gear drive transmission with a automatically actuated dry clutch. It was not very reliable as it had lots of seal and wiring harness issues. I know someone that had one and used it for delivering mail to rural mail boxes and had a lot of issues with it, ironically she bought a 2003 Rav4 from Japan to get a better vehicle and right hand drive but has been having trouble with the automatic transmission and warning lights, the garage thinks it could be the ECM but no one can read the codes.

[Al_Smith]

I did some reading about that so called fluid drive and from what was said it did have a clutch in addition to the hydraulic coupling .To shift you had to use the clutch .However if stopped it would slip the coupling allowing it to move in whatever gear it was in  Obviously it would not accelerate very quickly in a higher gear. At the period ,early 60's I was only 12-13 years old .
It would make sense with reverse normally be the lowest gear ratio .As such in reverse it would produce the highest over speed on the coupling and turn the engine over .

[moodnacreek]

There was a tractor with a fluid drive and 6 cyl flat head  Dodge. It was the Wards and maybe other badges. In a pulling contest, in it's class it always won.

[fluidpowerpro]

I'm pretty sure that tractor was made by Rockoil.

[aigheadish]

I'm just catching up to this thread. 

I'm out of the age range, at 45, but I learned on my sister's 1981 Honda Prelude, stick shift, and the hills of West Virginia. Took my drivers test in my mom's 1987 Honda Prelude, stick shift, and passed. My current car is still a stick shift Honda Civic Si. 

I tried to teach my son to drive my car but it was a bit too much for him, he could do it if he had to but I was worried about other stuff he may be missing by worrying about switching gears. He passed his driver's test last Friday (as mentioned elsewhere). 

I, too, have a story about automatics... My mom had just had back surgery and I think I was bringing her home from a doctor appointment, or something, in her Honda Accord station wagon. Everything was going fine until we were turning onto the street to home, when, being used to the clutch in my 1996 Civic, I stomped on the clutch that was really the brake, locked the tires up and thought that I'd maybe killed my mom. I felt terrible! I've done it a time or two in other cars but never like that. 

[47sawdust]

In 1995 I taught my 16 year old daughter to drive.Our only vehicle was a 1984 Ford F150  4speed stick.
It's pretty hilly here.She learned to master hill starts using granny low,took her drivers test and passed the first time in that truck.Don't know who was prouder.

[moodnacreek]

Brain works just a little better in the am. That fluid drive tractor was also called a Co-op.

[Al_Smith]

Most likely the Wards twin row was the top seller which was basically an Avery model A .Depending on the paint color could be a Cletrac general.Maybe several more .
The larger model with the flat head Dodge truck engine is rare as a hens tooth .I've seen one in my life time and at the tractor pulls usually won the class .What model it was I have no idea and I have the book of the Nebraska  tests .
My bud found one ,cheap .Reworked the engine and found a set of Wards "Tippy toe " tires which were the best on hard tracks .He never lost a pull except when he bypassed  the governor to put on a show engine running 4,000 rpms with over 150 HP roaring away .Just one of my interests when I wore a younger mans clothes .

[Al_Smith]

I did find this----Made from about 1948-51 at Joliet,Ill by the Lowther Corp..The ER and EW had a 250 CI Chrysler flat head 6 and the HR and HW had a 230 CI Chrysler flat head 6.

[Gere Flewelling]

The old guy who served as my mechanic and welder mentor was very fond of the old Farmall's and International tractors.  He had a Cub tractor and a Model H that he used to haul out and work up firewood.  I remember he burned 20 cords a year in his old colonial era house.  He had an add-on wood boiler in his attached barn that was plumbed into his oil fired boiler in the basement.  He built a 12' cordwood trailer out of a Studebaker truck frame and rear axle.  Used a Crosley three speed transmission and PTO shaft to the Model "H" to power the trailer axle when needed.  He said having the trailer power itself was just enough to get the rig through the rough spots while hauling a cord and a half at a time out of the New Hampshire spring time woods trails he encountered.  Plus it was a fun challenge to build.  He used the Cub tractor to run the cordwood saw.  As for the Cub tractor, his opinion of that tractor was as follows;  "It was too small to leave in the barn by itself but too big to bring in the house"  :D  He has been gone for many years now, but left me with some special memories for sure.

[Don P]

That Chrysler flathead L-6 ran from 1935 with 201 cu inches until 1951 as a 251 cid truck engine. As a marine engine into the mid 50's at 264 cu ins (ChrisCraft) and i think they were still going in industrial machines into the 1960's. Generally a truck version of those is a better build coming off a different line with upgraded parts.

 Dodge's first car engine dropped in a truck was the 383, the next was the 426 wedge, neither needed upgrading :D. And that L-6, bored way over, ported, polished, advanced was still winning against ohv's on dirt tracks into the 60's; Great pic, he was rubbin  ;D
plainville_62_b-jpg.1419018 (640×522) (jalopyjournal.com)

Here's the wiki page on them, pretty cool engine. It was in Massey Harris 101 and 201Super tractors, which I don't know, 1940's. In WWII they made a bank of 5 of them into a tank engine. It was in Power Wagon's up till '68. My first one was a '72 with a 318 and a 727 automatic. The OHV slant 6 replaced the L-6 flathead. 
Chrysler flathead engine - Wikipedia

[moodnacreek]

Geez Don, I didn't know you where a 'Mopar or no car' man. When Mack truck ended their gas flathead 6 they put the 383 in for gas truck customers. I think that would be the R 400.

[Don P]

Well, the slant 6 was in a Plymouth Duster that I bought for $300 and pretty much gutted, We called it the El CaDusto  ;D. I'm not prejudiced too much one way or the other, Dodges seemed to think this was a good place to come and die for awhile  :D. I was cleaning up under the lathe the other day. At least at the amount I use a lathe, it is a catch all. 2 old dodge alternators rolled out from underneath, because they were perched on treasure. For a couple of years on a 3/4 ton truck they had a reversed rotation steering gearbox. Perfect for a 4 wheel steer woods buggy.

Now I knew nothing about this, the steering died on a truck and I wandered down to a donor truck I had and unbolted the part. It had to do with the steering geometry they tried, the pitman is different, but for the parts I needed it looks the same. They will both bolt up fine. A person doesn't really know till they fire up, and go like they normally would. Your input into the top creates the opposite motion from what you would expect. That created some real head scratching, how did I do that :D.

[Al_Smith]

Many moons ago,mid 60's I had my hand in a modified stock car that used a slant 6 .It was punched with Jahns pistons ,cam the whole nine yards .Had the biggest bore Stromberg -Bendex two barrel carb I ever saw .I think it was 500 CFM .It would scoot . 

[Ianab]

Many moons ago,mid 60's I had my hand in a modified stock car that used a slant 6 .It was punched with Jahns pistons ,cam the whole nine yards .Had the biggest bore Stromberg -Bendex two barrel carb I ever saw .I think it was 500 CFM .It would scoot .

In the early 70 Chrysler Aus / NZ were building Valiant Chargers (a 2 door) with a 265 slant 6. Standard with a 2 barrel carb they made 200 hp, which was respectable. Factory tuned with a "6 pack" (3x2 barrel side draught carbs, hot cam, exhaust headers etc.) they made ~300.  
Of course fuel economy was secndary, and emissions weren't a thing.  :D
Dad would always tease Mum that he was going to buy a Purple Charger, just to get a reaction. Purple was a factory colour at the time. (it was the 70's). If I remember right we had a Mazda Capella rotary ( RX2) at the time, but he traded that on an Aussie  Ford Fairmont V8 instead of the 6-pack Charger. 

[Resonator]

Purple was a factory colour at the time.

Mopar in 1970 had a whole line up of colors options for the muscle cars they called "high impact" paint. If you've seen them in person, you either love the colors or hate them, but you can definitely spot them a mile away.
They had names just as flashy as the colors, and different names if it was a Dodge or a Plymouth.

Purple - Plum Crazy
Yellow - Top Banana (Lemon Twist)
Red - Hemi Orange (Tor Red)
Orange - Go Mango (Vitamin C)
Bright yellow - Citron Yella (Curious Yellow)
Green - Green Go (Sassy Grass)
Bright green - Sub Lime (Lime Light)
Pink - Panther Pink (Moulin Rouge)