It’s hard to believe that another Thursday is barreling down on us, announcing the impending end of another work week. I don’t know about you, but I have already planned what I’ll be working on this weekend. If your plans involve project advancement – let’s just say a transmission upgrade, we can help with that. How, you ask? Once again, we celebrate another editorial look-back, and jump into the way back machine to open the Power Automedia vault housing our vast collection of articles and revisit another great informational piece.

While they may look similar, there is a world of difference between a stock GM transmission and a professionally built unit from Hughes Performance.

In this Throwback Thursday, we’re taking a leap back to January 2015. That’s when we jumped head first into showing you what goes into a quality street/strip transmission with the help of Hughes Performance. Back then, we gave you guys an in-depth look so you have the information you need to make and informed decision about sourcing a great transmission. So, check out, Choosing A Professionally Built Street/Strip Transmission.

To get the skinny about choosing wisely, we contacted Pete Nichols, sales manager and tech support at Hughes Performance, to decipher what an enthusiast needs to know about selecting the correct transmission package. Nichols also explains the features and benefits of a professionally built street/strip transmission when you have a little more extra torque and horsepower under the hood.

Hughes makes most of their own internal components like this valve body. The other parts that are sourced are hand selected after testing to ensure they meet Hughes’ standards.

When it comes to street/strip transmissions, the Turbo 350 is considered a benchmark by many. With companies like Hughes building street transmissions capable of living behind higher horsepower engines, the choices of transmission packages are often a balancing act between durability, efficiency, and mass. More importantly, the OE transmission hard parts need to meet reliable specs before they are used in a professional performance parts manufacturer like Hughes.

In the original article, Pete explained, “We are dealing with transmission cores to start with. That stuff is sometimes 30 to 40-years old, and you have no idea how much fly weight is on it and how much abuse it has seen in the past. It’s just not as easy as buying a transmission core out of the junkyard and slapping in a rebuild and a shift kit and all of the sudden you have a street/strip transmission that is going to hold 500 horsepower.”

Anticipation grows as the transmission is bolted to the back of the engine. The Hughes transmission almost looks too nice to hide it in a chassis.

Pete goes on explain, “Every year that goes by, these transmissions get older and older. There is a lot of attention-to-detail items that have to be thoroughly inspected, checked, verified, remeasured, and possibly re-machined to restore surfaces to bring the transmission up to a truly functional level where it is not just going to function, but going to live a long, happy life for thousands of miles and years of durability.”

There is a lot more information in the original article, and If you’re looking for a street/strip transmission, this article explains why Hughes Performance should be your go-to source. For that reason, I feel that Choosing A Professionally Built Street/Strip Transmission is a great piece to showcase in this week’s Throwback Thursday. You really need to check out the original article. You’ll be glad you did.