I prefer to think of us as “elders”. Kids these days.
missileman I had a High School buddy with a 1958 Buick. That’s where I remembered it from.
Cosmos turning the key to the left was a simple reference to the political spin of the series.
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Cosmos was an excellent series, no matter your personal political spin, but the only thing you got out of it was a cartoon character turning the ignition key the wrong way?
It has been a looong time but I think my 64 Pontiac Tempest had a CCW ignition. It was definitely left of the steering wheel up high on the dash and I think I turned it CCW to start… The 2 Saabs I’ve owned with floor mounted ignitions were both CW.
@Mustangman, I believe you’re correct. It would make sense ergonomically to turn the switch CCW with your left hand.
Go to 55 sec. in this video:
Interesting comments. I just did a little experiment with a pencil in my hand and it indeed does seem easier to turn my right hand CW and my left hand CCW. So it wouldn’t be surprising that cars which positioned the ignition switch on the left side might require the driver to turn the key CCW to “start”.
I had a 65 Tempest Le Mans once, in 1974 or so, and I don’t remember the way the key turned. I even forgot it was on the left. It cost me $150, because it ran very badly and needed new spark plug wires, points and a carb cleaning. It was on the right in 66, and I had one of those, too. I might have paid $300 for that one. Good solid cars.
I dunno. Our Fords and Mercury always had the switch on the left and GM on the right side of the wheel but I don’t remember any of them turning CCW. Next Back to the 50’s car show, that’ll be something I look for. Unfortunately its not until June.
If I were designing a car – and its a good thing for drivers around the world I don’t … lol … — I’d put the ignition lock to the left of the steering wheel. Seems safer that way, less chance somebody in the passenger compartment, like a child, will monkey with the key.
@ok4450 Did your BMW R100 have the ignition switch on the side like my R80 did? I think you may be right about turning the key CCW to run, but then it had a start button on the right handlebar.
Nash also had the starter switch under the clutch pedal on standard transmission cars. I’ve never owned a Studebaker, but they may have had the same idea. It does make it difficult to start “in gear”. Nash automatics had the starter switch on the shift lever which was pulled toward the driver ONLY in the neutral position.
Yes, the switch was on the left and push button on the right. I remember the ignition switch as being kind of an awkward setup actually along with the pain in the back handlebars which were soon modified.
My sister had a '64 GTO which I drove a number of times and vaguely remember the switch on the upper left dash but for the life of me I can’t recall the rotation.
Logic would dictate that a left mounted switch would be easier to rotate CCW with the thumb doing most of the work as it’s easier to rotate the clenched hand outwards as compared to inwards.
Thanks for the video @insightful. It prompted me to see if I could find a video of someone actually turning the switch and here it is.
And he turns it CW! So I didn’t remember correctly the start direction. The thread continues…
I’'ll add some music to this walk down memory lane
It’s funny that none of the GTOs pictured were the early model which had the 389 ci engine.
Cosmos turning the key to the left was a simple reference to the political spin of the series.
Political spin??? The only politics involved was when the ultra conservatives who don’t believe in science started complaining about it.
Tough crowd indeed…
@Rod Knox, the secondt car pictured had a 389. It was a 65. And later is a 66 in yellow with huge wheels. That engine was used '64 thru '66 and the 400 entered the picture in 67 with a 4 barrel instead of the 3-2 barrel carb setup.
When I was in High School a friend had a LeCar I think that had a CCW ignition, or was it just mounted on the left side in the steering column. Either way it was weird and the car was just a wretched POS.
Well @PvtPublic, it was a French car, what would you expect? Conformity?
Mais Non! Le français ne font jamais ce est noraml
Weird little junk-box sold really well in France!
Likewise @MikeInNH, I don’t notice any political spin to the Cosmos broadcasts. I’ve only seen 4 or 5 episodes, it might get more political later in the series. The episodes I’ve seen definitely have a secular-science bent, as would be expected in a documentary about the field of astro-physics. But I haven’t noticed any obvious political bias one way or the other. The most important thing to me about it, I’m very happy I’m binge watching on DVD. With the number of obvious points of commercial breaks in the DVD segments, which are annoying in themselves, watching it on broadcast TV must have been very annoying.
I wish I could find a utube of the Cosmos cartoon segment where the key is turned CCW, but I don’t see one available on the internet yet. Maybe Cosmos was poking fun at the GM ignition switch problem? … lol …