In 1931 the Italian engineer Elio Trenta, a resident of Città della Pieve, presented an invention called Progressive Speed Automatic Change. The patent for this invention was registered in Italy in 1931 and was issued by the Ministry of Corporations – Office of Intellectual Property, with the number 298415.
The engineer presented his invention to FIAT but after Test and Prove the company decided to discard the project. First because the automatic gearbox reduced the car’s speed performance, secondly it increased fuel consumption.
In particular, the loss of performance was an aspect felt at that time in Italy. All the car manufacturers, in fact, worked in a constant battle for speed.
The patent was sold to an American car manufacturer called “OLDSMOBILE” in 1938. In 1940 the company presented an entire range of cars equipped with the “Hydradrive” system derived from the development of the Elio Trenta project.