Old Cars

Out walking with my little dog tonight I saw a pair of yellow (as opposed to the modern bright white) headlights on a car coming up the road. It got me to thinking of things long past.

Most cars had 6-volt electrical systems until the mid fifties when the industry changed over to the 12-volt system. Headlights were sort of a dim yellow and certainly didn't reach far into the night. Batteries were smaller since they only had four cells and they didn't last as long when you needed them. Also, for those of you who weren't around in those days, the cranking speed of a 6-volt system was about half the speed of the 12-volt replacement. For a few years during the transition it was important to remember to check the voltage of the electrical system if you were going to get or give a jump start. If one system were 6-volt and the other 12-volt something was about to get burned out, or up.

Reminiscing about headlights reminded me that headlight dimmer switches used to be on the floor over toward the left side of the driver's foot space just left of the clutch pedal. When driving on rural roads it was customary to leave ones headlights on high beam until an approaching car flashed their lights reminding the errant driver to dim his lights.

The starter button was also on the floor in those days and there was no override to prevent a car from being started in gear. In fact, sometimes it was useful to start a car in gear if your clutch was bad or your throw out bearing was going out. You could start the car in first gear and by skillfully using the gas pedal shift through the gears by taking advantage of the slack in the drive chain as you decreased the pressure on the gas.

The windshield wiper control was on the dashboard along with the headlight switch so in those days there was only the steering wheel and the horn button on the steering column. Big changes were about to come though until today most cars have steering column and steering wheel mounted accessory switches and controls for everything from lights and wipers to radio and cell phone.

Also on the dash was the choke. Before the days of automatic choke controls the choke control was mounted on the dash. Before you started the engine you pulled out the choke and after starting gradually returned it to normal as the engine warmed up.

Another peculiarity of the old cars was the vacuum windshield wiper system. The wipers were powered by the vacuum created at the manifold and most times it worked alright. When going uphill or when accelerating the wipers would lose power because of the drop in vacuum and slow or even come to a stop when vacuum was diverted to the necessary task of running the engine.

Squirrel knobs or necker knobs were popular during the forties and fifties. These free-wheeling knobs were attached to the steering wheel and allowed the driver to turn the wheel quickly using just the knob. I'm not sure why they were called squirrel knobs, maybe because a person easily could cut doughnuts or otherwise act squirrely. As far as the "necker knob" moniker, it's pretty self-explanatory. One hand on the wheel with its necker knob to steer the car, the other hand free to do other things.

Fender skirts, continental kits and curb feelers were other things peculiar to the late forties and fifties. If you don't know what they are you are free to do an on-line search for enlightenment.

I don't know about the custom in the big cities but where I grew up the car key was always in the ignition just as our house was never locked when we were out. It was a different time when people weren't concerned about strangers stealing cars or entering unlocked houses.

The move to automatic transmissions took time but it was a big thing in the forties and fifties to have a slushbbox. Dynaflow, Hydra-matic, Fluid-drive and Power-drive were all proprietary names of automatic transmissions from the forties and fifties. The automatic transmission made driving easier and allowed those who couldn't figure out how to drive a stick shift model to still get on down the highway.

Strangely enough, automatic transmissions have never caught on in Europe and the far East. Maybe because stick shifts are usually more economical, they are the usual model over there. If you want to rent a car in Europe or other countries outside the US be prepared to pay a lot more for an automatic transmission model.

Now I understand American cars with stick shifts lately are in higher demand. It seems the pendulum may be swinging back to the more complete driving experience of stick shift cars. Also on the plus side, no time to use your cell phone if you are busy shifting gears.

Those yellow headlights brought back lots of memories. I have mixed feelings about the quality of the modern driving experience compared to that of the forties and fifties. I know modern cars are a lot safer with seat belts and air bags being the norm. Accident rates per mile are way down but somehow those days of driving before automatic transmissions, air conditioning and surround sound let a person know that they were in control of a capricious beast that may or may not cooperate to get to the desired destination.