Prom was last weekend. I borrowed a Lincoln Towncar, either a  '98 or 2000.

Looking through the manual, we (my friend Clay was with me) noticed that in overdrive, the car has only 3 gears. I wondered how that could be efficient, so we took her for a spin.

We were a little early to pick up our dates, and I'd called, and Effany told me that her dad would shoot out our tires if we were early. Soo...

I pulled up to this long straitaway on the highway by my girlfriend's house, 200 meters of clear, straight road, we stopped, then I pushed the accelerator slowly until I was flooring it.

In about 150 meters, I had passed 100 mph.

Then I began slowing, so as not to miss our turn, which was around the bend a couple hundrend more meters down the road.

Engine had plenty more power, I just ran out of road.

Most automatic trannys have 3 gears. If they are overdrive trannys then its a fourth gear. My El'Camino was only a 3 speed. When I was raceing I shifted into second at 75MPH. Just depends on what the car was set up to do.
Now I just had a brain-fart but there were some 2 speed Auto trannys built. But I cant remember what they were called for the life of me.

DVDtracker wants one of them.  

57 Chevy Bel-air had the 2 speed auto on it. What a dog. The average automatic now has four forward gears. Most of them have a setting for just drive which basically limits it to just the three lowest gears. Most also have a setting for 2 and 1 so that you can keep the car from upshifting until you desire it. Which is useful for mountain driving downhill on steep grades. All of these things of course pale in comparison of couse to a manual tranny.

BTW there is no way that the town car can get anywhere near 100 in 150 meters. Its a 4000 pound car and its only got 200 HP. You would be lucky to see 85 in a quarter mile which is over 400 meters. 100 would probably take around 600-700 meters at best. Towncars aren't made to be fast they are made to be heavy and therefore pretty comfortable for the passengers.

0-100 in the span of about 150 meters eh?

Ah...no.  Sorry.  Try again.  Not even close.

He must have been reading the METRIC ring in the speedo. Or if it had the electric dash than the owner must have switched it to the metric setting.

BTW. The Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a lighter more powerful version of the Town Car, does the quarter mile in 13.8sec at right about 100mph.

A car that's pushin' 4000 lbs with 239 hp/ 287 ft-lbs of torque doing a 13.8 1/4 mile?

Uh....no.  I dont think so.

[url]http://www.fleet.ford.com/products/specialty_vehicles/2003_PAB_CrownVictoria_Specs.asp[/url]

It is a Lincoln Town Car drive it and smile while you are driving it.

Now I remember what the 2 speed tranny is called : Power-glide.

Ford also used to have a 2 speed auto back in the late 50's/early 60's (Ford-O-Matic or Cruise_matic??).  Nobody seems to like it though, unlike the GM 2speed.  The PowerGlide is popular in dragracing circles.  MotoGuzzi & Honda both offered 2speed autos on some models of their motorcycles but they didn't catch on.  Much less performance for more $$$$$? [>:/][:\]  

My dad's 97 Police interceptor would be lucky if it was pulling low 15's in the quarter. These cars weren't made to be dragsters, or racers. They are heavy and not overly fast. They are made to be big enough to do a little pushing if needed, and haul garbage in the back seat. They win races on the haghway because they have alot of friends and the dual fans and all the cooling allow them to run fast longer than most other cars without overheating.

The police interceptor is only like 75 pounds lighter than the towncar, the CV has about 35 more HP and equaly more torque.