If you drive a modern vehicle, your transmission likely has over 800 parts, making it the most complex of your car’s systems. And while earthly transmissions may have been simpler, they addressed the same challenge: how to transfer power from the engine to the wheels.

With so many classic cars on the road today, we thought now would be a great time to review the evolution of the auto transmission, from early chain-drive systems to gearless continuous variable transmissions (CVTs). More about those later. Let’s start at the beginning.

1894 Levassor & Panhard In the late 19th century, the quest for a […]