GPWizard F1 Forum
Fun Stuff => Fun Videos => Topic started by: Wizzo on January 23, 2016, 11:37:55 AM
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In 1908 Henry Ford sold his novel Model T cars as the first to be really accessible to the masses. What's more, he marketed them as easy to handle for casual drivers and (gasp!) women since they started with a button rather than a crank. Thing is, those old Model Ts were still pretty complicated to drive. Bloomberg Pursuits' Hannah Elliott took a 1914 Model T for a spin but first she needed a driving lesson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLMS_QtKamg#t
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My Dad had a Model T for most of my early life. We would get it out and running about once a year. He always wanted to restore it but life kept getting in his way. He finally sold it when we moved from Phoenix to Tucson in 1972. No push button start though, you had to hand crank it. He told me one had kicked back when he was younger and broke his arm!!
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That was a very early Model T, with the smaller brass radiator shell, flat topped fenders and noticeable flat firewall behind the hood (bonnet).
There was no gearshift. The planetary transmission of the T was the forerunner of today's automatics. GM even had to pay royalties to ford when they first introduced Hydramatic.
In the great early thirties gangster movie The Public Enemy, James Cagney's character has to point out the difference. When a parking attendant grinds the gears on his LaSalle, Cagney yells, "Hey, that's got gears. That ain't no Ford!"