led lights in cars

[jim.gm4dhj]

but who cars you all have until the end of the decade to buy your rubbish....and electric cars are not the answer either....

[NY]

I always wondered how easy a handbrake on the right (as on my dad's various Hillman Hunters) is to access. Presumably there has to be a lot of space between the RHS of the seat and the door for you to be able to get your hand down to reach it. On all the cars I've owned, the seat extends right up to the door pocket. Was there ever a problem with catching your bottom on the end of the lever as you were getting in, or was it significantly lower than the seat base even when fully applied? How about bashing your knuckles on the door lining? Were the seats closer together in the middle because the space wasn't needed for the handbrake?

I found the handbrake on my mum's Renault 6 (umbrella handle under the centre of the dashboard, roughly in line with the dashboard hockey-stick gear lever) very easy to reach. Less so was the "spade handle" one higher up in the centre of the dashboard on my dad's Citroen GS, partly because the lever was designed for LHD and the release button was under your little finger instead of your index finger.

[jim.gm4dhj]

cant remember it was 1971 after all.....remember replacing the pawl/claw l though

my 66 mustang had an umberalla handbrake...hated it

[Brian]

The Fiat Ducato has the handbrake on the right of the driver’s seat. I assume this is because a major market of the Ducato chassis / base vehicle is the campervan / motorhome market and this leaves a the floor between the seats clear to let you walk to the habitation area.

[Ian Jackson]

My first car, a 1953 Ford Perfect, had drum brakes (of course) and rod brakes - and it could stop on a sixpence. [Mind you, its top speed was about 50mph, and I used to cruise at 42mph.] No radio, of course, but it was fitted with an optional retrofit heater (passenger side, under the front shelf) and a stick-on rear window heater. Indicators were semaphore, and windscreen wipers vacuum driven. No temperature gauge, but it did have an ammeter (moving iron, I think). I have happy memories of many 160 and 80 metre mobile QSOs from it.

[Colin Bignell]

Before they started putting side impact bars into the doors, there often was a lot of space between the driver's seat and the door. At one time, I used to have fire extinguisher mounted there; easy to take with you if you had to bail out quickly.

Was there ever a problem with

[jim.gm4dhj]

arn't dormobiles great

[jim.gm4dhj]

my god I thought I was old...tee hee

[Jim gm4dhj ...]

It's amazing people thse days don't appreciate what they have got in a car and push and push for more and more features rather than just say that meets my needs I don't want any more

[Andrew]

But how many rice puddings would you want to fail to pull the skin off ?

[Andrew]

Many unfortunate people didn't like being carted into A&E after a headon in a mini or 1100 with the ignition key embedded in their left kneecap.

[Andrew]

Only in winter when they parked up off road and not causing massive tailbacks on country roads

[NY]

I was listening to a podcast of a novel (Paraffin Winter) set in the long hard winter of 1963 and the protagonist describes how he bought a second-hand car (might have been a Prefect/Popular/Anglia) and got the garage to fit an after-market heater. Hard to imagine cars ever not having them - in winter they are more important than radios. Essential to keep the windows demisted: the driver may freeze but he still needs to be able to see out.

[jim.gm4dhj]

you can't use an EV heater anyway so nothing changes

[NY]

I'd have thought that an ignition switch between driver and passenger was less at risk than one mounted on the steering column.

My forehead can testify that an emergency stop in a Morris Minor with no seat belts, shiny leather tip-up seats and a little sister behind me unwittingly pushing the seat forwards as we stopped, is painful when your head hits the metal glove box lid. No harm done to me or the car, but my forehead was bruised for a few days. That was when someone pulled out from a side road and my mum slammed on the brakes to (just) avoid him.

[jim.gm4dhj]

didn't happen to me when I hit a gate post 1970...seats ripped out engine pushed into sub frame...no seat belts

[jim.gm4dhj]

yip

[Jethro_uk]

Best handbrake I've used was actually a footbrake. On a US car, it was next to the real brake (where a clutch pedal would be).

You pressed it with a satisfying "rasp" and it locked solid. Push a bit further to release it.

It's mechanism was ultimate proof of what I learned as a child - that the ratchet is there to be used and none of this poncing around with your finger on the button.

[charles]

Car were still quite primitive then. The Ford Popular, in it's basic version only had a single windescreen wiper - for the driver. I bought a secondhand Anglia (105E) in 1964.

[Max Demian]

In some cars you could buy one for the passenger side, advertised as, "Let her see too."