Another car questions + opinions

[Telecolor 3007]

I was quite amazed when I've seen in that old auto book that I have that you could use the throttle lever as a cruise control form. I don't know if you could add this option at "Renault" 12, but at the Romanian version, "Dacia" 1300 you could put some kind of it.
But why they quited this option on cars? So it could be used as for accelearation too?

But what put on the move those old windscreen wipers?: electricity or vacuum?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Steering wheel mounted throttle control was a thing for a while in the early days of cars. When the gas pedal showed up, there were still several car makers who included the old fashioned lever in addition to the pedal, presumably for people who were still used to that system, and hey, it could be used as cruise control too.

Apparently Model A's were among those cars.

I see Horn, Lighting control, and spark control on that steering wheel... The spark control would have an effect on the engine output but wasn't the same thing as throttle...Basically vacuum advance wasn't a thing in Fords yet when the model-A came to be. So Ford connected a linkage from that steering wheel control to the distributor and the driver became the vacuum advance computer...The only real advantage to that system I can think of was that back around the time of the Models T&A gas was pretty inconsistent and could be rather lousy....Manual spark control meant the driver could easily adjust the engine tune to avoid the damage of pinging/detonation regardless of what type of fortified water/strong liquor was in the gas tank.

Telecolor: the wipers in the A were probably human powered just like in the model T....Vacuum powered wipers if they were a thing then would have been only for luxury cars and would have trickled down to cheaper berands gradually. Once powered wipers became the norm they were primarily vacuum powered up into at least the mid 50's IIRC. I believe a fair number of cars still had vacuum wipers into the 60's.

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

I was quite amazed when I've seen in that old auto book that I have that you could use the throttle lever as a cruise control form. I don't know if you could add this option at "Renault" 12, but at the Romanian version, "Dacia" 1300 you could put some kind of it.
But why they quited this option on cars? So it could be used as for accelearation too?

But what put on the move those old windscreen wipers?: electricity or vacuum?

They likely stopped the throttle lever because of safety. In a panic stop, you'd have to have enough cognitive function to think that you need to put the lever down in order to stop. Especially on an old car with only rear brakes that could barely stop the car, nevermind the car AND the engine. That, or if you just died at the wheel, the car would keep going until it crashed into something.

As far as I can tell, Model A's had a vacuum powered wiper. It may have been optional equipment, not sure. The vacuum motor is visible in that picture, though. Google 'ford model A vacuum motor.'

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I see Horn, Lighting control, and spark control on that steering wheel...

It's hard to spot. Read the bit under 'Instrument panel light.'

[Telecolor 3007]

Some people died with rhe foot on the accelaration pedal.
They could do a systmem that canceled the throttle lever when you pressed the brake pedal.

[Telecolor 3007]

But I wonder if I can add on steering colum a throttle lever (at least one that have 2 positions: off - a liitle bit of fuel) so I will not be force to press the acceleration pedal when changing down.

[MadMan]

Of course you could do that. Just a matter of rigging some parts together to do what you want. Have you learned how to drive a stick yet?

[Telecolor 3007]

No. Some one sayed he will come with a car and going to me on the auto poligon, but he didn't (yet).

[Telecolor 3007]

And in Romania you have to modify the car in order to have double command (meaning the person that seats next to the drivers haves command pedals too) in order to be able to drive it before you have the exam and to pass the exam. So I fail and want to try with a preselector gearbox, I will have too look for another country to give the exam.
Very many years ago the double command wasn't needed in Romania.

[MadMan]

Well that sucks. That means you basically HAVE to use a driving school to get your license, right? Hopefully your friend will just let you drive his car around a parking lot or something :/

[Telecolor 3007]

Yes, I must use a driving school.
In Bucharest we have an auto school poligon where you can go and drive even if you don't have a driving licence. Hope one day I will get with somebody there and get a drive. I would want to try a manual gearbox car with column shifter, but theese are rare today, since most of the old cars that had it went to scrap after the "increase of the standard of living" or are not roadworthy.
But how is U.S.A.?
And why in U.S.A. it's mandatory that new cars have to have sealed light beams.

[Sandy G]

I think the lighting laws go back to right before or after WW2... The Sealed Beam system was apparently MUCH better than what they had at the time, which varied tremendously across the country..

[Electronic M]

IIRC sealed beam headlights have not been mandatory for most of my life. I think they were mandatory from the 40's to the mid 80's here...Then the government created standards that the separate bulb and reflector/lense types that are now prevalent here use.

There are probably still new column shift cars sold here...My 2002 Chevy Suburban has a column shift automatic transmission as factory equipment...Same as my 1978 Lincoln.

[Telecolor 3007]

Now sealed beams aren't any longer mandatory in the U.S.?

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

Now sealed beams aren't any longer mandatory in the U.S.?

You are correct.
https://www.carid.com/articles/brief...hts-in-us.html

[Telecolor 3007]

As a Europeanen I find strange some of the past regulation reguarding hadlamps in U.S.A.