There were gear-reduction starters long before the one Chrysler started using in 1962. Chrysler's application was the largest/broadest up to that time, but not the first.
If you have a tin ear, maybe. '92-up Ford products have gear-reduction starters; does this sound anything like a Mopar to you, when it's cranking? Or this? How 'bout a this 1989 Volvo? That has a gear-reduction starter, too.

If you're not sure (or heck, even if you are), compare those to…this. Now that's whut ah'm tawkim' 'bayout!

Well…no. There was no copying involved.
The hemispherical combustion chamber wasn't Chrysler's idea, either.

But sure, y'know, by all means, Chrysler is awesome and inventive and original and every other car maker in the whole wide world is poopy and derivative and a bunch of copycats. Rah-rah-rah and stuff.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

D

That large-frame starter was introduced on the big V8s for '74. It was factory-installed on small V8s and Slant-6s in some years; Chrysler were pretty spastic and random about which engines got the large-frame starter and which ones got the small-frame starter from about '76 through '87-'88 (in '88-'89 they started using Nippondenso starters).
Both. The large-frame starter has a 2:1 gearset; the small-frame starter has 3.5:1. And the large-frame starter's motor spins a whole lot faster than the smaller unit. So yeah, it sounds hella different. Here's a brand-new large-frame starter hot-cranking a 440, and here it is cold-cranking the same 440. We hear more compressions per second than we would if this were a 6-cylinder engine, because an 8-cylinder engine has…more cylinders! This starter has a similar cadence/rhythm to the Nippondenso item, but the gear whine isn't the same.

There were three different sets of field coils for the small-frame starter, which give significantly different cranking speed characteristics—not just the speed itself, but also how much difference there is between the cold-cranking speed and the hot-cranking speed, whether and how much the starter spins-on after you release the key, etc. There were also two different bearing configurations in the small-frame gear housing, which also affects how the starter sounds.

All the large-frame starters had a 4-series field coil set. Here's a one-of-none large-frame starter with a 3-series/1-shunt field coil set—the coils are the larger size for the larger motor, but conceptually the same as the '62 and '64-'72 small-frame starters (except '64-'69 170, which used the '63-type 4-series windings), cranking a 225. Here's that same one-of-none starter cold cranking a 440, and here it is hot-cranking the same 440.

And then there was the Australian Bosch gear-reduction starter used on certain Valiants down there. This is what a 225 sounds like with an Australian accent, mate!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Great sound clips, Dan! I never realized that there were two different frame gear reduction starters. Listening to the sound bites jogged my memory of some LB and RB engines. Having had hard used daily drivers of every Chrysler make scattered over the last 50+ years, I found them to be very reliable. The only one I recall changing out was on a '65 Chrysler at 130k. It still worked, just sounded like it was going.

Just based on cranking speed, I believe the GR starter on my '82 D150 slant is the smaller type. Still going at 182k. I have a boneyard 90's Dakota Nippondenso in reserve, with a terminal kit from a forum member on ebay. I just can't bring myself to install it until I have to.

When I bought an '88 D150 318 in the latter 90's, I was stumped by the strange starter characteristics. That was my intro to the Nippondenso.

Quite some years ago I read a claim that the heritage of Chrysler's GR starter went back to the 30's. I have no idea if that has any merit. Others claim 1950's or 1962.

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1982 Dodge D150 ( Ram)
225 with A833OD. 2bbl. Non power brakes

1962 was the first year for Chrysler's gear reduction starter; there were others several decades before. I recall reading a detailed, photo-illustrated account of restoring a very old gear-reduction starter. It was in "Skinned Knuckles", and I think it was Matt Joseph's work, but I don't recall what kind of car it was for. Might've been a V12 1940 Lincoln Zephyr, but I couldn't swear to it.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

We continue to have issues with understanding.

I never said Chrysler invented the Hemi chamber, or even the GR starter. Notice my use of the word 'pioneered'. That is a term used in the English language when referring to someone or something that leads the way. For example, Jimi Hendrix did not invent the electric guitar nor did he invent rock n' roll yet he is considered a pioneer of both. No other auto maker came anywhere close to Mopar in ushering the in the GR starter (same goes for the alternator). It would be a big misstep to suggest that every other automaker wasn't well aware of Mopar's use of the GR starter and didn't follow suit. Those of us old enough to have lived on the 70's well remember that every Chevy and Ford guy used to carry on about "them funny sounding Mopar starters..."

As for the Hemi chamber, again, Sheldon, we all know Mopar wasn't the first to use it. They just have wholly owned it for the past 7 decades, and again, pioneered it's use. Anyone who feels the need to nit-pick the finer details is, well, a nit-picker.

I also didn't say ALL GR starters sound the same...in fact, I noted that even within the Mopar world, there are different sounds. Regardless, anyone who knows anything of automotive history knows that the GR sound is a wholly Mopar sound. To suggest it's a Toyota sound...that's when the wheels fall off. A GR starter - no matter who makes it - has a distinctly different sound than a direct drive starter. Mopar owns that sound. The fact that others have jumped on board doesn't change that. Jimi Hendrix owns the opening chords to Purple Haze...not the 45 million people who have played it since.