I learned to drive and took my behind the wheel driving test in our neighbors ‘61 Chevrolet Nomad Station wagon that was equipped with Turboglide. I never recall that the car lurched when it shifted into 2nd, it was a really smooth driving car.
Our other neighbors up the road from us had both a ‘63 Rambler sedan and a ‘57 Buick Station wagon. The two daughters that I went to school with usually drove the ‘63 Rambler to school if they weren’t taking the school bus. But one day they drove the ‘57 Buick wagon instead. They were behind the bus when we reached the steepest point on Meyers Grade Road and as the bus driver shifted into second, Diane slammed the shift lever straight down forgetting that she wasn’t driving the ‘63 Rambler and threw it into reverse and dropped the transmission.
I owned a ‘67 Buick Skylark 2dr HT from ‘76 thru ‘81 and it had a two speed auto transmission like Dyna-Flow, but I don’t think they still called it Dyna-Flow then. Anyway that was by far the smoothest shifing automatic I ever drove. One Thanksgiving I was going with a friend to his cabin in Covelo, Calif. on an old dirt logging road. It was steep and muddy. Nick, who was a terrible driver said when we got to the turnoff to this road from the main highway to let him drive because he was familiar with the bad road. I said no, I’m familiar with roads like that too and learned to drive on them and just kept driving. While paying very close attention to the road and the many wrecked cars down the embankment that didn’t make it I forgot to shift down to low. That Buick just charged right up that steep, muddy grade just like it was in low because that two speed Dyna-Flow down shifted just like it was supposed to in such a smooth and fluid fashion that I couldn’t even feel the transition.
Those old GM automatics like Dyna-Flow, Power Glide and Turbo Glide were smooth as silk. Plus as Mike mentioned they could be push started if you had a dead battery. I’ve seen old Chevrolet promo films for the ‘51 Chevy when Power Glide was introduced and and the made point of how you could rock the car easily out of mud, sand or snow with the Power Glide by only having to move from Low to Reverse with one move from L to R. I think it may have been in ‘53 that Chevrolet moved R next to Park on the Power Glide equipped cars.
Eddie