Saxomat was a type of automatic

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...

available as an option on the Fiat 1800,

Lancia Flaminia The Lancia Flaminia (Tipo 813/823/824/826) is a luxury car produced by Italy, Italian automaker Lancia from 1957 until 1970. It was Lancia's Flagship#Automotive, flagship model at that time, replacing the Lancia Aurelia, Aurelia. It was available t ...

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

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 car, compact front-wheel drive automobile manufactured by Auto Union Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH between 1958 and 1965. It was the first (and in many markets the last) model branded as an Au ...

Ford Taunus The Ford Taunus is a family car manufactured and marketed by Ford Germany throughout Europe. Models from 1970 on were manufactured using the same basic construction as the Ford Cortina MkIII in the United Kingdom, and later on, the two car mode ...

Trabant Trabant () is a series of B-segment, small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East Germany, East German car manufacturer HQM Sachsenring GmbH, VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four models were made: the Trabant P 50, Trabant 50 ...

, as well as certain models from

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

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 Gr ...

, Steyr-Puch, NSU, Glas,

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 ...

and

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

. 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 device, usually implemented as 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 ...

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 lower rotational speed and engages as the output increases to a certain speed. It is often used in mopeds, underbones, lawn mower ...

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

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 ...

and was optional on the

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...

(Sportomatic). The system also reappeared in the 1990s as Saab Sensonic, but Saab shelved that technology in 1998. Hyundai also introduced a 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 ...

. Cars with a Saxomat clutch did not have a clutch pedal. The Saxomat consisted of two independent systems: the centrifugal clutch, and the servo clutch. The centrifugal clutch was engaged above a certain engine speed by

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

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 con ...

. The servo clutch used an electric switch that supplied

manifold vacuum Manifold vacuum, or engine vacuum in a petrol 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 airflow thr ...

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