The old Hydramatics that we rebuilt in the late seventies and early eighties were out of Caddys and Oldsmobiles. I helped my cousin who owned and ran a large transmission repair facility and then moved on to a specialty rebuilder that did mostly racing transmissions.
An old friend who ran a nostalgia gasser used a Hydramatic with an Opel converter that we had the hub replaced in. We left the first gear shift controlled with the governor because you couldn't manually shift the transmission fast enough to keep from "floating the valves". I was told by both my cousin and my boss at the race shop that they were 100 to 1 in first. I never tore down and counted the planetary so I can't say for sure!!
When I drove that old gasser at the strip, it would shift into second just after the back tires crossed the STARTING line and I remember the tach hitting 7,200 rpm on that first shift. You talk about violent!! We replaced the old Oldsmobile rear end with a 9" Ford because it would break the Olds axles regularly and we could use the bigger aftermarket 35 spline Ford axles that weren't available for the Olds.
My old Gimmy pickup was governor shifted from the factory. It couldn't be held in first gear. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th could be controlled with the lever. Even with the modulator valve disabled it would STILL shift out of first immediately after launch. If I floored it, it wouldn't cross a four lane intersection before it was in second gear and with a loaded log trailer behind the truck, it would upshift at ten or twelve mph wide open. The tuck had a 4.10:1 rear gear.
Those old transmissions weighed almost as much as the engines they were bolted to. They were replaced by the JetAway as the years passed. That old slush box wasn't nearly as good, but it weighed almost as much!! They were replaced by the aluminum cased Turbo 400 about the time that the aluminum Power Glide replaced the cast iron version.
