A well-maintained car from, say, the 1980s could certainly drive alongside modern cars without a hitch. That is, it can accelerate swiftly enough, maneuver deftly enough, and maintain a high enough maximum speed that it could drive alongside other cars, in the city or on the Interstate, without real problems.
The same could probably be said of cars made in the 1970s, even the sixties. But what about the fities? The forties? Could a car manufactured in the 1930s, assuming perfect maintenance, handle interstate driving?
My father bought a brand new Oldsmobile in August of 1941. Was one of the first of the automatic shifts (called Hydramatic). That car would have no trouble with modern freeway driving. I’ve seen it hit 100 mph - at least according to the speedometer - more than once.
Cost the grand sum of $1,100. It lasted us all thru the war, and was finally replaced in 1949 with a new Pontiac, which wasn’t nearly the car that Olds was.
The 1929 Duesenberg could hit 94 mph in its conventionally aspirated version (faster with the supercharger) and it had hydraulic brakes, so speed was never really the issue. For that matter, I saw a whole fleet of Model A Fords on an interstate once, driving to an antique car rally.
Different cars would give you different advances – speed, shifting, braking and handling. But there are probably a number of cars from the 1930s that could be used as everyday transportation.
Depends how you define it (around here, “highway accessible” vehicles only need to hit 45 mph and have larger engines than 80 cc,) but locally, I know of many classic cars that are still being driven on the roads. They are still registered and have current safety checks. I have seen several Model T’s, but I’m not sure if the engine is stock.
Motorcycles, bicycles, and scooters from the dawn of time would be street legal.
Depends upon how much money you had too. A 1919 Hispano Suiza H6 would be totally at home today. 1.5 tons, 200hp. That isn’t much different to my Lexus is250. Except that the H6 was a car of the extremely rich. It was one of the more technically advanced cars of its day, which makes it rather interesting. First car with power assisted brakes for instance.
I think you would find the handling of all pre-1960’s cars pretty bad-especially at high speeds. Suspensions were pretty primative, up to the 1960’s-and shock absorbers wore out quickly. I drove a 1955 Ford once, and it drove like a truck-it was also prone to rear axle hop-those rear shocks were pretty weak.
I think the answer to the OP is between “plenty” and “none.”
As mentioned by others in this thread, many of today’s standard features appeared far earlier in automobile development than one might think. It’s just that they were usually too expensive, too unreliable and hence too rare. If your modern Honda has, say, ten advanced features, you might find those ten features in older cars-- just spread out across 5 to 10 of them, not all in one place, and certainly not at the reasonable price and dependable reliability one finds today.
For anyone of a certain age, or anyone who has driven an older car, it truly is amazing how capable and reliable today’s cars are. Even the lousiest cars today are far better than many of the better cars of as recently as the early 1980s. The compromises we make today have less to do with basic reliability and capability and things like fit, finish, options, etc.
A properly-maintained Duesenberg would be a very nice ride… with no anti-lock brakes, no airbags, no cupholders, no CD player, no navigation system, no ride-flat tires, no computer-controlled emissions system, etc., etc., etc.
And when it broke down-- and it would– you could have real fun fixing it. (On the flip side, at least with older cars YOU COULD fix them… the average owners of new cars may not even know how to change their own oil, let alone perform the basic kinds of maintenance older cars once required of their owners).
“The fastest stock car built under 300 cubic inch displacement”
“A mile in 51 seconds, guaranteed” (That’s about 70 mph)
“The car for the man demanding speed with safety”
Listed there for $2250. A lot of money in 1911.
Note the open construction, and realize that the windshield, if you had one, was an aftermarket “monocle” mounted on the steering column.
I remember reading an article by someone a couple decades ago who drove one of the things on a modern freeway. Keeping up with the traffic wasn’t a problem. STOPPING and maintaining enough distance was nerve-wracking, as the brakes were nearly non-functional according to the author.
