Speed Queen motors are rated 1/2HP, and have a centrifugal controlled start winding with a capacitor in series which provides a fast, powerful "kick" upon start up. Pump out rate is excellent, I even removed the molded reducing orifice at the end of drain hose when I installed my Speed Queen washer in late 2013.
I think all top load washers should have at least a 1/2 HP drain pump, and ideally a 3/4 HP drive motor- minimum. A separate drain pump is a reliability issue in part due to their lack of torque. My top load 1997 GE washers had the 180 watt Italian pump, and I remember after two years the pump started to do this thing where it would slow down during drain. You could hear it. (I'm guessing threads wrapped around the impeller shaft did this based on pumps I took out at an apartment scrap pile.) The tub would start to spin while still full of water, the pressure switch would trip, re-start spin, over and over. You think that with the presence of a clutch on the motor shaft there wouldn't be a need to run the spin circuit through the pressure switch, but apparently if you hold the water level knob interim keeping the switch in fill mode the spin would cause water to come out the over-flow pipe. Funny that did not happen with the filter flos... Put a shield above the motor, ditch the overflow pipe, bring down the water/suds drag honey combs on the inner tub, attach the drain pump directly to the drive motor, beef up the clutch a bit, Goodyear belt and then maybe the Model Ts would resemble an attempt at a clothes washer.
The Models had one redeeming quality (if I can allow myself to say such a thing) in that if you turned off the drain pump while in spin the machine was very quiet. A pump attached to the main motor would have preserved most of that tranquility. But the drain pump was so noisy gargling while vibrating the base pan it undid everything making the washer the loudest appliance in the house.
