# What's It Like to drive a 1930's Car? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624 "2002-11-13T21:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/21 "2002-11-14T06:04:37Z")
Speaking of Hemmings (the absolute bible of collectible cars): [http://www.hemmings.com/](http://www.hemmings.com/) enjoy! p.s. - the magazine is a delight - find it! ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/22 "2002-11-14T06:11:29Z")
p.s. - Cars of the 30’s were all over the place in terms of weight, power, brakes, steering, etc - a Packard was a huge beast, the Model A was a quick little thing - and we won’t talk about the Auburns, Deusenbergs, Pierce-Arrows and other huge monsters of the age. Is the OPer still with us? ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/23 "2002-11-14T14:49:56Z")
**racer72** ,you’ve gotta be thinking of another car, and not the T. All T’s had a planetary transmission controlled by three floor pedals, and no gearshift lever. Here’s a link:[Driving a Model T](http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/5804/) Of course, by 1927, this system was looking pretty antiquated, and the Model A, which superseded the T in 1928, had a conventional gearshift. My earlier post may have come off a bit negative; there’s nothing like an old car for attracting attention! You tend to have the same conversations with strangers; I once thought about forestalling the inevitable first question by getting personalized plates: “ITSA 47” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/24 "2002-11-14T18:59:22Z")
Just an observatyion. Never have I heard[?] so many words on a subject from so many people who never experieced driving a 30s machine----especially not in the 30s. To those few of you who actually might have actually spun an engine with a crank-----I salute you! I wish I still had my 36 Ford sedan with the “continental” spare. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/25 "2002-11-15T01:43:25Z")
Well, I drove a few 30s autos in the 50s, most notably the 38 Chevy mentioned above. I owned a Renault Dauphine that I often started with a crank, just to amuse folk. And, I have used a pull rope around the crank pulley of the old 36hp VW engines to start the things more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/26 "2002-11-15T03:10:39Z")
Hey, come on. My Willys is _practically_ a '30s vehicle! ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/27 "2002-11-15T04:32:34Z")
So was my model A - and the question was re. driving a 30’s car NOW, not in the 30’s. So there 😛 no, I never used the crank - I like my bones intact, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/28 "2002-11-15T05:28:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by happyheathen \* > \*\*no, I never used the crank - I like my bones intact, thank you. \*\* Just watch your thumb and things are fine - I’ve started my MGA a couple times with the hand crank - it IS an old design! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/29 "2002-11-15T13:14:42Z")
> [@](#): > > no, I never used the crank - I like my bones intact, thank you. I could say something very dirty about “cranks” and “bones”. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/30 "2002-11-15T13:47:46Z")
…they were called “slushboxes”. I guess the term came about because it was like driving a manual car with a slipping clutch-you had toreally rev up the engine before you got any forward motion! Anyway, those oldfluid drive transmissions-were they reliable? It seems to me that americans happily drove manual-transmission cars for well into the 1950’s…now,less than 5% of new cars come with manuals. How about the danger factors? A 1930’s car is not built to crumple in a crash-and that hard steel dashboard has got to hurt! ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624/31 "2002-11-15T14:01:21Z")
My Hudson and Plymouth both had monstrous steel frames under them, so I wasn’t worried about crumpling; what I _was_ worried about was being skewered on the steering column. There’s a reason one of the first safety improvements they did on cars, back in the 70’s, was the collapsible steering column. The frame under a Model A is not nearly so stout, and I’d be worried about crashworthiness. I (briefly) drove a 1948 Plymouth with a “fluid coupling”, which was a proto-torque converter which eliminated clutching between shifts. The transmission was a standard three-speed, and you had to use the clutch to start from a stop. Interesting, although I understand that it made the gas mileage go to heck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-it-like-to-drive-a-1930s-car/136624.md?page=1)