Imagine flipping through the owner's manual for your new car and reading these instructions:
"Close the coil switch.
"Place the spark lever at about the third or fourth notch of the quadrant.
"Open the throttle about five or six notches, and prime the carburetor if the engine requires it.
"Engage the starting crank firmly and pull up on it. Two or three times will usually suffice to draw the mixture into cylinders and ignite it."
It was important to spell things out exactly, given that many of the new owners who followed those directions -- from the Instruction Book for a 1913 Model T -- had never driven an automobile.
Compared with those pioneers of motoring, I had several advantages when I stepped up to try my hand at starting a brand-new Model T. For one, I'm no neophyte. As an auto writer, I drive about 100 new vehicles every year.
For another, Guy Zaninovich was standing by to keep me from doing anything dumb. He owns four restored Model T's, and he built the one I was about to try.
Still, I knew that Model T's were notorious for backfiring during start-ups, thus spinning the crank handle counterclockwise. Sprains were common, and compound fractures were not unusual.
Did I feel intimidated? You bet.
"There's really nothing to it," Zaninovich said, bringing the demonstration car to life.
"The mistake most people made was setting the spark with too much advance."
All right. Watch it with the spark advance.
"Just make sure the crank is engaged," he continued. "Work it up to about a 7 o'clock position, then yank it up quickly."
All right. Yank the crank. Hey! I nailed it on my first try!
Driving was a little more complicated. Switch from battery to magneto. Advance the spark, with the lever on the left side of the steering column. Add a bit of throttle, with the lever on the right.
Partly depress the clutch (the leftmost of three pedals), disengage the hand brake (a lever to my left) and press the clutch pedal right to the floor, engaging first gear.
To my delight -- and surprise -- I lurched off without undue drama.
Like the transmissions of many early cars, the T has two forward speeds, plus reverse. Once rolling, the driver simply removes his foot from the clutch pedal and the transmission shifts into high gear.
The T will slog along in high at very low speeds, and is quite forgiving of awkward neophytes. Top speed, with the windshield flipped down and all 22.5 horsepower on line, is about 80kph, though the car is happier cruising at about 56kph.
During my brief drive, I took Zaninovich's word about top speed. There were plenty of other things to think about, like: do NOT step on the center pedal -- that's for reverse. The right pedal is the brake, not the throttle. You operate the throttle with your right hand, and don't step on the clutch unless you really want first gear.
But the Model T's steering was easy to manage, a function of the car's low weight -- about 635kg -- and skinny tires. Once I had the hang of it, the only driving difficulty came from other, rubber-necking drivers. A Model T attracts a lot more attention today than it did in 1914.
RSS