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Monday, October 02, 2006

Taming a Flivver - that's a Model T to you...

As long as I can remember, I've always had a thing about Model T's. Although I love to modify them, Henry's flathead eight being my favourite engine, the idiosyncrasies of driving an original made me curious.
Curious enough to build one for myself.

So - just incase you ever need to know how to drive a T, let's get started.
Right - sitting behind the wheel you have a couple of hand levers, a handbrake,and three pedals on the floor. Seems normal right? Except - wait a minute!? Where's the gear lever?!
This is how it all works:-
Left hand pedal - gears. Down to the floor for low, lift off for high.
Centre pedal - reverse. Press it down to go back the way you came.
Right hand pedal - brake.

The handbrake has a litttle steel ramp on it so that pulling it halfway on holds the gear(LH) pedal in neutral ie about halfway down.

Lets assume this sucker is running (save that for another day...) & get this flivver rolling!
The hand lever behind the steering wheel nearest the centre of the car - that's your throttle. Knock her down a few notches.
Set the handbrake halfway off and stomp on the GO/lefthand pedal (early drivers equated it to kicking open the stable door...) , That should give you first which is useable for, oh, about the first 20 or so feet of your journey.
By now you should be panicking so lift your foot back off will give you neutral. Dab the right hand pedal will bring you to a stop - with the engine still racing mind, so notch the throttle back down.
And rest.

So. Feeling braver?
Right then - hand full of throttle, gently kick that left hand barn door foot down, let the handbrake all the way off and... take your foot back off the pedal. This gets you top.
Weird experience, barrelling along without a foot on the pedals...
You'll probably want to crack back that throttle a little as this torquey, lively old beast climbs to a heady 30-odd mph top speed.

Rolling along like this, adding a bit of left and right every now and again, adjusting the timing with the other hand lever to stop her pinking on the hills, America found its wheels.

Enough rambling though - it's probably time to slow this animal down.

In a panic - jumping on any of those three pedals is going to slow you down (infact experienced T users balance slowing down between the reverse and brake pedal to even out the wear) but lets do it the right way to start with...

Press the right hand pedal down, and as you slow, hold the left hand pedal down to get back into neutral - or pull the handbrake halfway on - and bring her to a halt.

Happy? Or would you like one last trick?

Well with the handbrake set to neutral, lets try out that middle pedal you've avoided so far...
Step on it like you did for first, bands grip and back you go! If a Model T driver meets a hill too steep (or Low wears out, or fuel is low, or the front main bearing starts knocking with oil starvation) turning round and reversing up gets you there.

There's loads more to waggling these levers and step dancing on those pedals - but this should be enough to get you rolling.
Oh - and don't abandon the driving seat without first pulling on the handbrake if the engine is still running - as a friends fence once discovered...

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