A blast from the past

General Discussion
1

A few days ago, while driving to the Post Office, I spied what was clearly a car from the '40s approaching from the opposite direction. While I waited to make my left turn, the driver of the classic car slowed down, so that he could make a right turn.
At this point, it was clear that the car in question was a Lincoln Continental Cabriolet, of the '46-'48 type. (The detail differences from one model year to another were very minor)

Anyway, this incredible 2 ton+ vehicle was restored to showroom condition, and was finished in a dark burgundy maroon, with a beige convertible top & boot. The top was down, but the color of the top was still visible. Between the abundant chrome of the front end, the flawless-looking paint, and the nice contrast between the paint color and the top’s color, the car was absolutely stunning to see.

However, what impressed me most of all was the effort that the driver had to go through in order to muscle this behemoth around a tight 90 degree turn.
The term, “Armstrong Steering” was definitely appropriate, as it was clear that the driver (who appeared to be ~70-75) had to use a lot of upper-body strength to wind that wheel, even though the steering of these old land barges was geared down so much that he probably had to do almost two revolutions of the steering wheel in order to get it around that turn.

As beautiful as these old cars are–and I would love to own one–I think that too many of us tend to forget just how much effort was needed just to drive them. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to parallel park a heavy car of that era! And, of course, the V-12 in that car was very far from state-of-the-art, even for the era in which it was manufactured. I guess that, like many luxury items, it existed mostly for its esthetic appeal, rather than any type of practicality.

Anyway, I was hoping that the driver’s destination was also the Post Office, so that I could get a really close-up look at his car, and chat with him about it, but he just tooled away down the road, so I didn’t get that opportunity. Even though I only got to gaze on that magnificent car for 30 seconds or so, it was definitely memorable.

2

Yes, they were impressive vehicles. The first cars I saw in our small town with “hydraulic steering” were the 1951 Oldsmobiles.

We had a 1946 Buick Roadmaster without power steering. We all had trouble parking this behemoth, but it ran very nicely in a straight line with those big 8.20x15 “balloon tires”.

3

A beautiful car; fully as elegant and luxurious as a Rolls Royce or Bentley of that era.

4

As I recall those non-power steering cars had rather LARGE steering wheels . . .

5

The Lincoln Continentals manufactured between 1941 and 1948 I believe were the last true American Classics by the CCCA. The one in the picture by jtsanders is a 1946. This was the year that a button was used instead of a door handle. It took as much effort to push that button to open the doors as it did the steer the car.

6

It would be fun to drive for an afternoon cars like I owned when I was young. A 1950 Chevrolet. A 1936 Chevrolet.

But, there isn’t enough money to pay me to live with them. My 2002 Sienna just goes. Starts. Stops. Steers. When I leave my house in the morning, planning to stop from 500 to 700 miles away that is what happens.

I have all repairs on it done here in the States, roughly 800 miles from where I live. Not that it takes many repairs.

Change the oil every 8,000 miles Mobil-1 EP. With 195,000 miles, original exhaust. CV joints. Transmission. Engine.

A/c added freon once. Some odd repairs, but not too bothersome for use it has given.

7

I had a 1950 Olds 88. Rather large steering wheel, no power. It was very hard to turn the wheel while stopped but even the least bit of movement cut that effort by at least half. It was a tough learning curve but I did learn how to predict where a car was going to end up, not adjusting after I stopped.

8

Take it back another 35 years - my dad restored a 1911 car, crank start. Do it wrong and you could break something…

9

This is the way I would go…if I had the $$$$.
http://www.premierkitcars.com/classic-replicas/

10

Bette Davis drove a 1947 Lincoln Continental in the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
She must have had strong arms.

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_55758-Lincoln-Continental-76H-56-1947.html

11
Take it back another 35 years - my dad restored a 1911 car, crank start. Do it wrong and you could break something... - See more at: http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/2292574/a-blast-from-the-past#latest

That’s how one of my grandpa’s relatives died. The crank spun back on him, cracked him in the head and killed him; he was only 17

12

I briefly had a 1970 Ford van that I bought to resell because the owner was practically giving it away. It had manual steering. Not fun. I was in my 20s and pretty strong and it took all my strength to parallel park that thing. If you drove that thing to the gym you could just turn around and go back home without going in.

13

I talked once with a fella and his wife who had stopped at an ice cream stand in a Model T. I asked them what it was like to drive it. His wife laughed and said “driving it isn’t half as scary as STOPPING it!”

14

When they tested a restored Model T on Top Gear, Jeremy Clark noted that so much leg strength was required to keep the “forward motion” pedal depressed for 1st gear, that it quickly became painful to keep that pedal depressed. However, when you lift your foot from that pedal and go into high gear, the car winds up going too fast for the vehicle’s brakes and handling. He was of the opinion that the driver of a Model T had two options:

Drive slowly and safely, while getting a massive leg cramp
or
Relieve the pain in your leg by driving too fast, thereby becoming a hazard to yourself and others.

15

I had a 1975 Dodge B200 van for a while, it was an old phone company van and had an automatic, slant 6 and no options. Manual steering and brakes, and no factory seatbelts. It was a dangerous vehicle in that the seats were vinyl and didn’t do much to hold you in place, and it took alot of effort to turn the wheel at low speeds. Sometimes the right combination of a sharp turn and high steering effort and you almost slid off the seat sue to having to put some weight in the steering.

This needs to go into my shoddy repair category, but the old van was dying from rust. Well the rear brake line rusted out and I usually used it to haul my dirt bikes to and fro a nearby property in the country, so I foolishly decided to just plug off the rear brakes at the master cylinder.

I drove it like this occasionally for a year and a half and finally one day while slowing to turn into my friends driveway a front line blew, so of course now I had NO brakes, I only partially negotiated the turn into his driveway and clobbered his mail box and a series of scrub brush which slowed me down until I hit a big tree, but by this time I was only going 5mph maybe.

I found this rather amusing and backed the van out using the transmissions forward and reverse as brakes. I drove up his driveway and back to his trailer and asked him who hit his mailbox, he was furious as we rode the dirtbikes down there to the mailbox to survey the damage and was going to go settle a score with a neighbor, who we called drunken joe. My friend was convinced it was drunken joe, since there was only two other people who lived down his dead end road, and they wouldn’t have hit it.

Drunken Joe was known to head back from the VFW post all liquored up and hit random mailboxes and telephone poles along the way in his 68? ltd. One time he drunkenly ran my friend off the road and my friend decided to get even by, Well thats another story for another day,…

Anyway, yes I owned up and we fixed his mailbox.

16

Electric cars were selling quite well when they competed with hand crank gas cars. As soon as the electric motor starter became the norm, the electric car found it’s place in absurdity. Funny how it was the electric motor that caused the demise of the EV. Nothing to add. Just too much time on my hands. It’s raining and the Sox are behind.