Saxomat was a type of automatic

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

available as an option on

Fiat 1800 The Fiat 1800 and 2100 are six-cylinder automobiles produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat between 1959 and 1968. Both models were introduced in 1959. A four-cylinder 1500 cc version, the 1500L, was added to the range in 1963. The 1800/2100 were d ...

Lancia Flaminia The Lancia Flaminia (Tipo 813/823/824/826) is a luxury car produced by Italian automaker Lancia from 1957 until 1970. It was Lancia's flagship model at that time, replacing the Aurelia. It was available throughout its lifetime as saloon, coupé an ...

Saab 93 The Saab 93 (pronounced ''ninety-three'') is the second production automobile that was manufactured by Saab. Styled by Sixten Sason, it was first presented on December 1, 1955. The 93 was powered by a longitudinally-mounted three-cylinder 748&nbs ...

Borgward Isabella The Borgward Isabella is an automobile which was manufactured by the Bremen based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH from 1954 to 1962. The Isabella was to have been marketed as the Borgward Hansa 1500 but the Isabella name was used on t ...

, Goliath/Hansa 1100,

Auto Union 1000 The Auto Union 1000 is a luxury compact front-wheel drive automobile manufactured by Auto Union GmbH between 1958 and 1965. It was the first (and in many markets the last) model branded as an Auto Union by the manufacturer since the 1930's; it ...

Ford Taunus The Ford Taunus is a family car that was sold by Ford Germany throughout Europe. Models from 1970 onward were built on the same basic construction as the Ford Cortina MkIII in the United Kingdom, and later on, the two car models were essentiall ...

Trabant Trabant () is a series of small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. In total, four different models were made, the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Tra ...

, other than some models from BMW,

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

, Steyr-Puch, NSU,

Glas Glas may refer to: * Hans Glas GmbH, a former German automotive company * ''Glas'' (film), a 1958 Dutch documentary film * ''Glas'' (book), a 1974 book by Jacques Derrida * ''Glas'' (publisher), a Russian publishing house * Glas (surname) * Eo ...

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the p ...

and

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

. Opel sold it as Olymat; Trabant and Wartburg named the system Hycomat. The Hydrak, used in some Mercedes-Benz vehicles between 1957 and 1961, was a similar system with a hydrodynamic

torque converter A torque converter is a type of fluid coupling that transfers rotating power from a prime mover, like an internal combustion engine, to a rotating driven load. In a vehicle with an automatic transmission, the torque converter connects the power ...

in place of the Saxomat's

centrifugal clutch A centrifugal clutch is an automatic clutch that uses centrifugal force to operate. The output shaft is disengaged at low rotational speed and engages more as speed increases. It is often used in mopeds, underbones, lawn mowers, go-karts, chainsaws ...

, this H.T.C. system was standard on

NSU Ro 80 The NSU Ro 80 is a four-door, front-engine executive sedan manufactured and marketed by the West German firm NSU from 1967 until 1977. Noted for innovative, aerodynamic styling by Claus Luthe and a technologically advanced powertrain, the Ro 8 ...

and was optional on the

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

(Sportomatic). The system also reappeared in the 1990s as Saab Sensonic, but Saab shelved that technology since 1998. Hyundai also reintroduced similar concept as the Intelligent Manual Transmission (iMT) in 2020 with the latest generation

Hyundai i20 The Hyundai i20 is a supermini hatchback produced by Hyundai since 2008. The i20 made its debut at the Paris Motor Show in October 2008, and sits between the i10 and i30. The i20 replaces the Getz in nearly all of its markets, while several m ...

. Cars with a Saxomat clutch did not have a clutch pedal. The Saxomat consisted of two independent systems: the centrifugal clutch, and the

servo Servo may refer to: Mechanisms * Servomechanism, or servo, a device used to provide control of a desired operation through the use of feedback ** AI servo, an autofocus mode ** Electrohydraulic servo valve, an electrically operated valve that ...

clutch. The centrifugal clutch was engaged above certain engine speed by

centrifugal force In Newtonian mechanics, the centrifugal force is an inertial force (also called a "fictitious" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It is directed away from an axis which is paralle ...

acting on spinning weights inside the clutch, similar to a

centrifugal governor A centrifugal governor is a specific type of governor with a feedback system that controls the speed of an engine by regulating the flow of fuel or working fluid, so as to maintain a near-constant speed. It uses the principle of proportional cont ...

. The servo clutch used an electric switch that supplied

manifold vacuum Manifold vacuum, or engine vacuum in an internal combustion engine is the difference in air pressure between the engine's intake manifold and Earth's atmosphere. Manifold vacuum is an effect of a piston's movement on the induction stroke and the ...

via an actuator valve to a reservoir that disengaged the clutch. The clutch is disengaged automatically whenever the gear-shift lever was touched.

External links

Saxomat FLR catalogs and fitting instructions

Technical and troubleshooting
{{Powertrain Automotive transmission technologies Automatic transmission tradenames Clutches

See also

External links