A company known for its powerful engineering capabilities, Packard introduced its own automatic transmission in 1949.

In its heyday, the Packard Motor Car Company was known not just for its fine cars, but for its prowess in advanced engineering. Packard was a pioneer in V12 and straight-eight engines, in aviation and marine power, and the hypoid drive axle. While Packard introduced its first automatic transmission in mid-1949, its work on the development actually began 25 years earlier, using tools like the twin-dynamometer test rig ahown above.

For an independent automaker, Packard’s engineering capabilities were as robust as any.  The famed Rolls-Royce/Packard Merlin aircraft engine of World War II is just one example. When Ford and Studebaker developed their automatics at around the same time, they relied on manufacturing giant Borg-Warner for technical support. For the Ultramatic, Packard performed all the work in-house under the direction of chief engineer Forest McFarland.

Ultramatic was introduced in mid-1949 on the flagship Custom Sedan, then adopted across the board at Packard in 1950 as an extra-cost option. Much like the Buick Dynaflow or the Chevrolet Powergilde, the Ultramatic was a torque converter-based automatic. That is, it relied on its torque converter rather than a gearset to supply the torque multiplication for acceleration. There was a two-speed planetary gearset inside, but low gear was user-selected only. There was no automated upshift in normal driving.

However, the Ultramatic added an additional refinement. Integral to the torque converter was a hefty mechanical friction clutch, which Packard called the Direct Drive Clutch. (We would know it as a torque converter clutch or lock-up converter.) Hydraulically controlled, it could engage at speeds as low as 16 mph, engaging direct drive and eliminating the odd slip-and-slide driver sensation the Dynaflow and Powerglide became famous for. Meanwhile, a throttle-coupled kickdown feature bypassed the friction clutch and reengaged the torque converter for acceleration. The Ultramatic was “first in its class,” Packard declared, “the last word in automatic, no-shift control!”

Even as the company was suffering through its final years, Packard continued to improve and refine the Ultramatic. In 1956, the last year of the “real” Packards, Touch Button control was introduced as standard on the Caribbean and as a $56 option on the rest of the product line. Unlike the mechanical Chrysler push-button shifter, the Touch Button system was electric with components supplied by Autolite.

A few years earlier in 1954, Packard had introduced what it called Gear Start Ultramatic, which included a hydraulically controlled first-gear start that eliminated the need for the driver to engage low gear. For 1955, McFarland and his assistant chief engineer John Z. Delorean developed the Twin-Ultramatic with further improvements, and in 1956, Ultramatic’s final year, Packard pioneered the pressure-cast aluminum transmission housing, which was then adopted across the auto industry over the next few years.

The Packard-powered 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk also used the Ultramatic, as did 1955-56 Nash and Hudson cars when equipped with the Packard-supplied V8. But that was the end of the Ultramatic story. The very last Packards, the Studebaker-based “Packardbakers” of 1957-58, were equipped with Studebaker V8s and Flightomatic automatic transmissions supplied by Borg-Warner.