Ford Pinto
Offered with an inline-4 engine and bucket seats the Pinto's mechanical design was conventional, with unibody construction, a longitudinally mounted engine in front driving the rear wheels through either a manual or automatic transmission and live axle rear end. Suspension was by unequal-length control arms with front coil springs; the live rear axle was suspended on leaf springs. The rack and pinion steering had optional power assist, as did the brakes.
GM Roto Hydramatic transmission
Roto Hydramatic (sometimes spelled Roto Hydra-Matic or Roto-Hydramatic) was an automatic transmission built by General Motors and used on some Oldsmobile and Pontiac and Holden models from 1961–1965. It was based on the earlier, four-speed Hydramatic, but was more compact, providing only three forward speeds plus a small 8" fluid coupling with a stator inside of the fluid coupling (a type of torque convertor, only integral with the transmission rather than being an independent unit). Oldsmobile, one of the users of this transmission, called the fluid couplings stator the "Accel-A-Rotor." The lightweight, aluminum-cased transmission was sometimes nicknamed the "Slim Jim." HydraMatic Division calls the Roto a four range, three gear HydraMatic. It counts the stator multiplication @ 3.50 to one as a first gear, and when road speed and the two coupling halves speed match, it counts the same gear with fluid now passing straight through the stator as 2nd gear at 2.93 to one. Second gear (or third range) has a ratio of 1.56 and because the fluid coupling is drained for this gear ratio making the front clutch apply makes this a rare automatic that is in FULL mechanical lock-up (coupling drained) in second gear. Fourth range the coupling fills releasing the front clutch makes a ratio of 1 to 1. This transmission, like single and dual range, and dual coupling hydramatics also have the feature of split torque in the transmission whereby in fourth or high gear only 40-to 50% depending on transmission, 40% in Roto's case, but because of the design the coupling is only required to carry 40% of the engine torque. The rest is (60%) is in full mechanical connection making these hydramatics the most efficient automatic until the wide spread use of the lock-up torque converter.