Good info Bill. This is from discussion with Pontiac Pat (Bill, you might recall e-mails with him). Pat is a '55/'56 Pontiac "expert" and a Rolls Royce "expert" (in my opinion). He has 55/56 Pontiacs, has worked with them for many years, and just purchased a '57 RR.
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Re the Hydramatics- ... re the RRs, they used the Hydramatic as late as the 1990s (others are saying 1962 and 1967 for the last) on the VERY limited production Phantom VI limos (P IVs, PVs, and PVI are/were only sold to heads of State). The reason being, the same as the early ones---part of the brakes are driven off of the trans output shaft. This is called the servo. As new as the P VI is, the tech in it is considered very old, as cars goes--this is for coach building requests (custom bodies), which require a frame to fit the heavy body. (uni body cars can not take custom body)
And, interestingly enough, all RR Hydramatics are of the 1951 and older type--or in other words, there was no more development. (Hydra's are broken into two gens, '51 and back, and '52 and up)
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So he's saying the RR Hydramatic was based on the first single-range Hydramatic, not the dual-range which came along in '52. Quite interesting -- and seems odd they would use the older design. Here's what the
Wikipedia Hydramatic Article says:
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In 1952, Rolls-Royce acquired a license to produce the HydraMatic under license for Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles. It continued production through 1967.
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But according to Pat, early 90's were last years of building the first Hydramatic design (single-range and dual-range). Perhaps building a few of them would not be considered "production".