Art Carr C4 tranny

anybody know anything about the Art Carr C4 transmission? I saw a drag maverick with one in there on ebay. I'm just curious. What's the scoop? why are their transmissions special or good enough for dragging?

 

I'm not trying to buy the car or one of the transmissions or anything, but could you ellaborate more on the differences between this and a stock C4? Is this a modded stock C4 or something completely different?

 

Art Carr sells a number of different models. some are good - others are just warmed over stock with alto clutches. and some valve mods.
It just depends on what you want to spend. Some folks think they haven't gotten what they paid for but you have to pay for the name too.

 

so a C4 can be modded to be comparable or better than an AOD or T5 (for example)?

 

C4=3 speed
AOD= 3 Speed+ Overdrive
T5= 4 speed +Overdrive

you cant really compare them

you can compare a C4 to an FMX or a C6(3 speed automatics)

and a AOD to and AODE/4R70W (Overdrive Automatics)

and the T5 to a T10, toploader, T56, etc...(manuals)

 

I have personally built C4s that lasted multiple seasons behind 900+ HP cars. I have also had C4s built for 900+ HP that broke in the first season - my customer didn't tell me he was using nitrous to get his power - 300 HP nitrous shot is hard on any transmission but especially hard on one that isn't built for it.
I don't know how many T5s will take that abuse but I think you might be able to build an AOD to take it. It would just cost more to do it.

 

When you get an Art Carr transmission if it is a new one made by the company in Texas it is really not an Art Carr transmission. Art Carr sold his business several years ago and the new owners kept his name as a selling point. Some say the quality is not that good

The real Art Carr has a transmission shop in California called California Performance Transmissions

 

I have an early Art Carr full race AOD..it is bad azz...T/brake,
L/O/overdrive, deep pan and oil cooler w/fan...

......

 

I love the FMX, you know its the only transmission that you can rebuild and replace all the clutches without having to pull the transmission out of the car.

 

They did that on purpose cause it weighs as much as a small car.

 

Does anyone overdrive a C4? Is that even possible? Does overdrive even matter that much if the transmission is strong enough to begin with? This opens whole new cans of worms. Awesome!

 

Overdrive is made to lower the rpm of the engine NOT make the transmission stronger.
MOST OD transmissions are weaker in their stock condition than a stock C4.
The AOD is one of them. That is why it is so expensive to make them perform as well as a C4. You never use the OD when drag racing.
An AOD is not recommended unless you run lower gears than 3.7:1 because even at 3.7:1 when you are in OD your overall ratio is only 2.4:1 That will get your RPM just out of the idle circuit of the carb with an engine that doesn't make mutch power until you are at 3000 RPM. For almost all street only applications the AOD is a waste of time and money.

 

hmm. so would switching out my C4 for an overdrive transmission inadvisable then? (sorry, kinda get off the original topic). I will be using the car as a daily driver, but was planning on gearing it out a bit. I was under the impression an OD transmission would be beneficial for highway driving with swapped gears. Would I be cutting off my nose at other times by swapping out the C4 then? I'm always open to some odd mod too.

 

can I just stop and say that this is also really *super interesting too.

*expletive edit

 

What gears are you going to run?
How much power do you expect to make?
How much does your car weigh?
EFI or carb?