I have a neighbor, Jim Ventimiglia, with two 1930 Model A Fords. One is a two door hard top coupe, the other is a two door hard top with a rumble seat.
The coupe was up on jacks one day a couple of years ago when I walked by with my dog, and I stopped in, introduced myself, and then gave him a hand adjusting the cable brakes. The rumble seat car is a restoration in progress; just the other day I helped Jim put it up on a trailer and drag it over to the body shop for some frame tweaks. He's about 70 years old -- same as the car -- and a retired Chrysler worker. I believe he was a machinist.
Well, this evening about 10PM I was just getting back from walking Leo and Jim pulled up, on his way to get gas, and asked if I wanted a ride!
Some of the old timers have probably ridden in these. For me, before I started occasionally helping him out I'd never even touched one--they've always been somebody's prized possession, and you learn early that you are to look but not touch. So when I hopped into the front seat I had no idea what to expect.
You sit up high on a softly sprung, bouncy seat, and you've got a great, SUV-like view of the road. There are no seat belts of course, no dashboard padding, no safety glass (as far as I know) -- all of the glass surfaces reflect a lot of light inside the car because they're flat panes. The headlamp switch is a lever located in the center of the steering wheel.
They're really quite narrow cars, and the seat back doesn't quite come up to your shoulder blades. I'm not sure the seats are adjustable fore and aft, but my feet were right up against the firewall.
The four cylinder engine is noisy, as is the drivetrain. There is a cloth headliner and a rubber floor mat, but no sound insulation. There are distinct gear whines from both the transmission and the rear end, both of which employ straight-cut gears. The dashboard has an instrument panel right in the center illuminated by an incandescent bulb. The speedometer swings wildly back and forth in this car; Jim say's he's not sure how accurate it is, but he thinks the fastest he's ever gone is 55MPH on the freeway.
The thing took on about 7 gallons of very carefully dispensed fuel. It was odd only pulling up to the pump roughly even with the windshield; the fuel tank is in the firewall!
He was nice enough to take me for about a 4 mile ride after we fueled it up.
The pace was gentle, but somehow it was pretty thrilling anyway!
