Have any of you ever driven a model "T"? I would not drive one home if the thing had a full tank of gas. Brakes on a "T" were a joke. The transmission was something that had no gears. Your legs went numb pushing on the pedals. Every six months you had to open up the slushbox and rebuild the tranny. It had ball bearings and cage rollers because that was the cheapest thing they could think of. There were no oil seals anywhere. The rear axle grease was kept in with spirals on the rear axles. Any one with a lick of sense carried every part in duplicate. The low tension ignition, with four wood vibrating coils, would die in a rainstorm. Starting the thing was a crapshoot. If it started, you ran the chance of a broken arm or jaw. Not retarding the spark was an instant broken bone. Only a drunken fool cranked one in a fog. Henry sold you a cheap car and then he screwed you while you owned it. While the purchase price was cheap; the cost per mile broke your back. When GM started building cars with that drunken, whoremaster, race car driver's name on them; people beat a path to their door. Chevy had a heater, transmission, brakes, starter, waterpump, and everything that Ford omitted or charged extra for.
The fuel in those days was closer to kerosene than gasoline. Straight gasoline was around fourty octane and 'HI test' was a whopping seventy octane. The price for fuel was super high, considering what a man made. Most cars were designed to run on only one type of fuel. Mixing fuel was disaster. Very few machines had the necessary adjustable manifold, variable compression, and multi-fuel carbs to handle the range of kerosene, distillate, regular, and "Hi test".
Power in a Model "T" would have been improved if it had a good lawnmower engine. Backing up hills and pushing were normal methods of getting up hills. The car scalded the owner and froze him on the same day and, if you turned your head, killed the poor fool outright.
There were better cars built, in the seventies that beat today's hybrids. Companies like Elcar and Citicar built cars with Kohler engines. They used tube aluminum frames with resin skin. The tranny was a varidrive and things were kept to the KISS principle. I have a friend that bought one to drive to work. My buddy bought one Citicar and drove it for ten years. He adored the thing. It was a step up from a motorcycle and it was good in the winter. Some idiot ran a red light and plowed into him. He about cried when he realized he had to scrap the car. He was beaten up, in the crash, but the tube frame kept him safe in the crunch.
Someone should think about the the term, 'cost per mile'. Today's hybrids eat you up on maintenance. They also are a severe tradeoff in performance and weight carried. They do not use diesels, in hybrids, because the engine would weigh too much and how are you going to get reliable rapid starts and shutdowns? What happens when the diesel must run full throttle from a cold block?
Let us all raise a glass to the good old days. MAY THEY NEVER RETURN.
Charlie Biler
www.molineparts.com