Transmisiones Y Mecanicos

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[edit] The History of TREMEC, Transmisiones y Equipos Mecánicos

In the early sixties Ford was looking for someone to manufacture transmissions in Mexico. At the time, the Mexican Federal government had mandated that any automaker that wanted to sell a car in Mexico had to see to it that 60% of the car was local content produced in Mexico, and furthermore, all engines and transmissions had to be 100% manufactured in Mexico. Ford, GM, and Chrysler had all been assembling cars in Mexico since the 1920's and 1930's, but up until 1964, all the components were imported from the US, including fully assembled engines and transmissions. This mandate occurred in 1962 and everyone had to comply before December 1964.

If that wasn't constricting enough, the mandate policy further dictated that if an automaker wasn't already making the component in Mexico at the time of the mandate, they had to find a Mexican majority owned outfit to make it for them. Ford had already been looking for a US firm willing to manufacture transmissions for them in Mexico. When the mandate came out, Ford had a big head start over GM and Chrysler. Ford finally persuaded one of their large transmission suppliers, Clark Transmissions, to be the partner that would bring all the transmission manufacturing experience to the table. The new startup transmission manufacturing outfit would ultimately be formed by three entities including Clark. These two additional companies were Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA), and Impulsora de Empresas Eléctricas.

Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA; Civil Engineer Associates), was a construction company with interests of diversification into other industries, including manufacturing. The man running ICA was Bernardo Quintana, who though family and friends was introduced to this new venture. Impulsora de Empresas Electricas (IEE, Electric Industries) has a very interesting history leading up to 1964. IEE was a corporation owned by American and Foreign Power, a US power company that owned electric power plants in Mexico. Though the 1950s, the Mexican government nationalized several electric, gas, and oil companies. Early on (under President Cardenas), companies were outright taken by expropriation. However by 1960 (under President Mateos), companies were purchased with the stipulation that all money received as a fair payment must be reinvested in Mexican industry. So IEE, fresh out of the electric business with a pile of money they had to invest, became the third entity to form the transmission manufacturing company, and thus, TREMEC, Transmisiones Y Equipos Mecánicos (transmissions and mechanical equipment), was born. Established in 1964 on 108 acres (44 hectares) in Querétaro, México, with facilities of 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2), TREMEC's first transmissions would be produced later that same year.

As the four US manufacturers (GM,Ford,Chrysler,American Motors) planned to shift manufacturing to Mexico, It was decided that with the small number of transmissions needed by the automobile manufacturers (less that 100,000 cars and trucks would be produced by the US automakers in 1965), that the industry would realistically be able to support only one manufacturer and regulations and tax consessions were made to allow TREMEC to be the sole source provider for manual transmissions in México. TREMEC contracted with GM, Chrysler, American Motors and Ford] to supply car and truck transmissions. TREMEC licensed several model transmissions from Borg Warner, Clark (or course), and New Process (including the A-833 Chrysler four speed).

Within five years, the costs of producing several different transmissions that had the same basic application and configuration became too expensive and TREMEC worked with the manufacturers to standardize and rationalize the number of transmissions.

The Clark T-150 was the light weight three speed gearbox for passenger cars and the same transmission was used by GM, Ford, American Motors, and Chrysler. The four speed passenger car gearbox became the brute Ford T&C toploader, and was used behind Chrysler Super Bees in addition to Ford Mustangs. The T-190F four speed was the pickup truck transmission used in 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton trucks (Dodge D-100, Ford F-150, Chevy C-10, IH by Dina 1000), and the Clark 2622 five speed was used in the heavy duty trucks, like the Dodge D-500.

In 1968 TREMEC was exporting transmissions directly to Ford USA, in addition to exports to Brazil and Venezuela. By 1970 TREMEC was producing 500,000 transmission and were exporting 85% of it (425,000) annually. Growth and engineering excellence continue heavily through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1991, TREMEC underwent some strategic merging of technology with ZF, Cummins, and Rockwell, and would later acquire Borg Warner and the rights to build the T-5 and the T-56.