When I worked in the industry, one of my customers had a contract to do transmissions for the largest cab company in the City. The cabs were a real mixture of x-cop cars, and anything that was cheap to buy(typical at the time of the taxi industry). As I recall, any city cop car transmissions were nothing special(typical 318 configuration), but if he got any pursuit cars to repair that was another thing. A 440 powered pursuit car had almost the same stuff as the Hemi transmission. Solid bands, extra clutches in the drums, better planets, etc. I don't know what the taxi industry is like in your area, but based on my experience and taxi transmissions, cheap was the by word. Also, bbrroowwnn nailed it with that after 50 years of service, used and abused in the taxi and police fleets, it's been probably built a number of times.
