At last it has all come together. You have the right truck, the right stance, the right paint and interior, the right amount of horsepower, and even the proper approval from your better half. You're a real road warrior, and with your wheel in hand and your foot on the gas, the highway miles pass by effortlessly...or are they as effortless as you think? What about your driveline-is it out of sight and out of mind? With a mega-cubed engine pushing high horse and torque numbers, a stock driveline will essentially constipate the full potential of your engine. It's true that GM has built some of the toughest rock-crushing trannies in the automotive world, but as time progresses, these transmissions age. As technology evolves and gas prices climb high into the stratosphere, making some serious improvements to your car's cruising potential will rise to the top of the to-do list.
If you've got a T-400 transmission that needs replacing, or any GM tranny, for that matter, we have got a killer combination you should see. During the hottest time of the year, we found ourselves in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Hughes Performance headquarters. If you're not familiar with Hughes Performance, let us fill you in on what they do. Since 1971, Hughes has been involved with racing, and specifically with transmissions. Not limiting themselves to just racing applications, Hughes Performance builds transmissions for all types of applications, whether it is street, strip, or towing; if they don't have a transmission to fit your needs, it does not exist. If you were to put a Hughes T-400 in your vintage GM truck, here's what you would get:
* Cast-aluminum deep pan
* Intermediate clutch kit w/Kolene steels
* Forward/Direct clutch kit w/Kolene steels and Kevlar bands, front and rear
* Hi-Pressure Performance oil pump
* All units are fully dyno-tested
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Here are the innards Hughes uses in their high-performance transmissions. We don't expect you to do this at home. | 
Hughes Performance and their skilled technicians do this kind of work day in and day out. Watching this transmission go together in an hour made my head hurt. There is no way most of us could do this on our own. |