Why driving a Model A is insanely difficult

[Rusty_OToole]

Watch a Millenial try to drive a Model A. I laughed like hell, the video is a scream and you should see the comments section. If you want to feel like a cave man this is the video for you.

 

 

[1937hd45]

Must own several iPhones, you would think he could have found someone to teach him how to properly drive an A. Stopping while in neutral may effect the future gene pool. 

 

 

Bob 

[J.H.Boland]

There wouldn't be near as many distracted driving charges if the young folks still had to DRIVE a car !

[Matt Harwood]

I like the kid and he really seems to be having a good time, which is entirely the point. However, someone should tell Colin (the actual owner of the car) that he should leave the spark advance alone once the car is running. Then he could tell his friend who is driving it so there's one less thing for him to worry about. A Model A is no more difficult to drive than a modern car except for the non-synchro gearbox. You don't have to fiddle with all the levers while you're driving. It's easy!

 

As long as you leave the spark lever alone, I guess.

[Bhigdog]

I like when he says, with amazement, theres nothing digital. Huh...WTF?.......bob

[MICKTHEDIG]

H had a Bug, I think he will be buying his own Model A soon!

 

[DB26]

 On behalf of millennials, I apologize

[Rusty_OToole]

2 minutes ago, DB26 said:

 On behalf of millennials, I apologize

No need to apologize. It is a funny video and gives a new perspective of what a 1930 car means to someone who never drove one. To be fair, he does a better job adapting to 1930 technology, than I would to his latest 2019 electronic gadget.

[1937hd45]

1 minute ago, Brass is Best said:

Maybe he should have read the owners manual on how to drive the car. Nothing hard about driving a Model A. I do it all the time.

Will someone sacrifice a Model T to see how he does driving one?

 

 

Bob 

[Bill Stoneberg]

I have been driving a 1915 Model T for almost all my 66 years. I is my uncles and every time he came home to the farm, he would get it out and give rides and driving lessons.

Now it belongs to my brother so I still get to drive / ride in when I go to see family.

 

Everyone  should learn how to drive the older cars.

[61polara]

We should do these in AACA and post on YouTube.  Video your grandson or granddaughter driving your AACA car.  Great way to promote interest in old cars.  Let them experience them.   I'm planning on bringing my mid-twenties nephew up to have him drive a non-syncro '21 Maxwell, '41 Chevy vacuum shift, '47 Roadmaster manual and then a '50 Chrysler Fluid Drive Prestomatic.  He'll be totally confused, but love every minute of it.  

Edited May 15, 2019 by 61polara (see edit history)

[zepher]

One thing is for sure, if everyone still needed to drive cars like this there would be no chance to text while behind the wheel.

Driving 20's cars is work and they need your full attention at all times.

[41 Su8]

The headlight switch is upside-down.

[R Walling]

Early in my career I drove one of these three stick trucks. I wonder how the driver of the Model A would handle this?

 

 

[TexRiv_63]

I thought the video was very good and the comments by the driver very realistic for someone who had never driven such a car before. He was actually quite complementary of the car within its age limitations and his reactions were totally normal for anyone comparing it to any modern car. I had the exact same reaction when I drove my first prewar car at age 61, which was a 1928 Pierce Arrow. I marveled at the extreme level of mechanical involvement, high effort and heightened senses required to drive such a car and reacted just like the video driver until I got some experience.

 

The snide generational comments by so many on this forum who are very experienced in driving ancient cars are one of the reasons younger people aren't joining the car clubs we care so much about.

[60FlatTop]

Eligible for judging at Hershey this fall. That "learned to drive on a Model A" judge will need his smart phone to Google the instruments. And that doesn't count the radio controls.

1994 Ford Taurus.

 

[TerryB]

I agree there is an extreme over abundance of negativity on youth here, especially that comment on crayons and safe place nonsense. That is uncalled for and cruel.  If you take young people in with a welcoming and positive attitude you have the opportunity to share with them the enjoyment you see and work with them to develop an interest in things outside their normal exposure to life.

 

As a former Boy Scout troop leader we adult volunteers took the time to expose young men to many skills that were foreign to them and helped them master those skills and enjoy a part of life they would have missed had we not done so.  There is not a lot of call today for map and compass skills in the age of GPS, but our youth know how to use it if necessary.  Same thinking belongs here, show, teach, enjoy and welcome our future automotive hobbyists and drop that I’m better than you attitude.

[1937hd45]

14 hours ago, Brass is Best said:

 

Killing the clubs to appeal to the "Younger members" and their 1980 and newer cars will continue to keep the older members and Pre WWII vehicles at home. Enjoy your Walmart lot. Sorry if the snowflakes need a safe spot and cookie. 

 

 

Bob  

[BearsFan315]

Have to give him credit, he looked and sounded to be having a great time and enjoying himself entirely !!  like stated above, that is what it all about. He was able to drive it and did not give up. even threw out some hand signals. He even knew a little about the car even if he had to look it up or someone tell him before.

 

shoot he probably drives it better then i can drive my 1929  but the more i drive it the better i will get ( i hope) have NOT driven it in 4+ years since i started my restoration. so going to be a learning curve when i get back into it. 

Edited May 15, 2019 by BearsFan315 (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

1 hour ago, TerryB said:

I agree there is an extreme over abundance of negativity on youth here, especially that comment on crayons and safe place nonsense.

 

I have noticed many people raised during the 1930's and WWII years tend to be shorter than average due to hard times and poor nutrition in their early years. The diet may also have caused issues of a cognitive nature as well. Started noticing that when I was about 11.

[KongaMan]

42 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

Killing the clubs to appeal to the "Younger members" and their 1980 and newer cars will continue to keep the older members and Pre WWII vehicles at home. Enjoy your Walmart lot. Sorry if the snowflakes need a safe spot and cookie. 

Your attitude will kill the clubs faster than their cars.

[TerryB]

1 hour ago, 1937hd45 said:

Killing the clubs to appeal to the "Younger members" and their 1980 and newer cars will continue to keep the older members and Pre WWII vehicles at home. Enjoy your Walmart lot. Sorry if the snowflakes need a safe spot and cookie. 

 

 

Bob  

I sure hope you are not the membership chairman for your club. 🙂 You and I are nearly the same age by maybe 1 year difference yet we are polar opposites in thinking.  Old age is keeping the pre WWII cars at home.  Look at the age of the owners, they are busy selling off their stuff as they move on to the retirement community or big car show in the sky.  If you SHOW young people you are interested in sharing with them what you have, you can make a difference. If you continue to call them names then you can only expect a poor ending to something that seems you might want to continue after you are gone.  Choice is yours.

[Matt Harwood]

2 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

Killing the clubs to appeal to the "Younger members" and their 1980 and newer cars will continue to keep the older members and Pre WWII vehicles at home. Enjoy your Walmart lot. Sorry if the snowflakes need a safe spot and cookie. 

 

 

Bob  

 

Sounds like you're demanding a safe space more than any of the kids. The kids aren't telling you to keep out of their clubs, they're not telling you that your car is uninteresting, they're not telling you that you're foolish for not embracing technology. In fact, I bet if you showed up with your Model T at one of their events, you'd be treated like a celebrity and there would be a great deal of curiosity about the machinery. Would a kid with, say, a 1988 Honda Prelude (which is AACA eligible) feel the same at Hershey? We all know the answer to that one.

 

There's a group very loudly demanding that the world conform to their wants, but it doesn't appear to be the kids...

[cahartley]

This video reminds of another featuring a couple of teenage boys who have just been introduced to an old fashioned dial telephone and challenged to use it.

Having never seen one they figure it out in fairly short order.

I gave them a lot of credit for figuring it out while others were making fun of them.

I wonder how those who make fun would have fared in the same situation.

I bet a majority of the fun makers couldn't find their rear ends with both hands so they'd never have figured it out.

I'll wait for the first person who posts he/she knew it all at birth and never needed to learn anything........ 

[1935Packard]

Great video.  Reminds me of when I first drove my Packard.  I was about 35, and I had no idea what I was doing.  I stalled a lot.  And  there were lots of times when I was confused about what the car was doing.  But I had a blast, and I figured things out over time.

Edited May 16, 2019 by 1935Packard (see edit history)

[C Carl]

Confuse-us say : Old man go to wake up. Find out not his world anymore.   -   Confused Carl 

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Model As are pretty rugged.  Anyone who practices a bit can get the hang of one in fairly short order.  It behooves any new driver of an A or any prewar car to learn a bit about mechanical and technology limitations of the vehicle.  Stopping ability, cornering, no signals are bigger factors to me than learning how to use the non synchro box.  Understanding 90% of the other drivers on the road dont understand those limits is really critical.

 

Exposing anyone to these cars is really the best way to spread interest.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

My father taught me to drive when I was 14 on our 1930 Model A roadster. I'd been starting the cars for years anyway, so I was already good at that, and I had a rudimentary understanding of the shifting process. But nothing beats practice. The kid in the video got the hang of it pretty quickly and I bet another 20 minutes of driving without also trying to film a video and he would have been motoring it as well as anyone. I'm irritated that his friend told him to retard the spark at idle so he felt he had to keep moving the spark lever while he drove and he'd be more successful at the double-clutch if he did it faster. That would come with a little practice--I remember the first time I nailed a clash-free downshift from 3-2 in that Model A and I was so proud of myself, although all my father said to me was, "That's how you're supposed to do it." Bah.

 

I think the really important thing to see in this video is how much fun that kid is having. He's grinning and laughing and having a great time. He tried something new and found it enjoyable and now he can tell his friends that old cars aren't so scary, they're not hard to drive, and that they pretty much work like other cars. THAT is exactly the kind of introductions we need to do to young people so they understand that these aren't horseless buggies or steam engines, they're just cars like any other and if used properly, they work like cars. Put a kid in the driver's seat and let him drive your car to see what happens. The hardware is heavy-duty, he won't hurt it even if it's totally ham-fisted. I do it with my young staff members and when my son is 14 next year, I'll probably take him out in the parking lot and teach him to drive, both automatic and standard, synchromesh and non-synchro. By the time he's 16, he'll be driving one of the cars to shows with me. That's the plan, anyway...

 

 

[1937hd45]

When our oldest daughter was six she was sitting in my 1912 T and said she could touch the pedals. I fired it up and she drove up the street on my lap to show Grandma. Easy car if you keep in in Low. Bob . 

[John_Mereness]

21 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

Sounds like you're demanding a safe space more than any of the kids. The kids aren't telling you to keep out of their clubs, they're not telling you that your car is uninteresting, they're not telling you that you're foolish for not embracing technology. In fact, I bet if you showed up with your Model T at one of their events, you'd be treated like a celebrity and there would be a great deal of curiosity about the machinery. Would a kid with, say, a 1988 Honda Prelude (which is AACA eligible) feel the same at Hershey? We all know the answer to that one.

 

There's a group very loudly demanding that the world conform to their wants, but it doesn't appear to be the kids...

A lot of people forget how they became interested in cars - it generally came from seeing them, someone giving them a ride, someone letting them drive, someone showing the features of their car, and ...  My mom's cousing had a car collection that was pretty stellar,  my parents had sports cars, Dad's first employee daily drove a 1929 Stearns Knight that was some time or another over a week parked in our drive, we had an extra garage spot and someone's something or another was always parked in it, there was awesome stuff running around our neighborhood, and ...

[TerryB]

My dad owned cars that were well used and required lots of shade tree fixes as we did not have a garage to work in.  I helped him as best I could.  Dad was a bit grumpy when a car refused to work after some of his fixes so I knew when to step aside when it got to that point.  Still he taught me a lot.

 

One of my real inspirations was a local guy who raced dirt track cars, the old flathead Ford type and then the later overhead valve stuff. He would let me “help” with the work which was mostly gathering tools and handling him parts.  He always had time for me and my questions.  Look at the Rapid Roy Stock Car Boy video on YouTube, that really brings back memories of him when I watch it.

Edited May 16, 2019 by TerryB (see edit history)

[TerryB]

 

[Paul Dobbin]

I thought the kid really enjoyed himself, and what wrong with that?

My old farmer neighbor died and left his Miata to his daughter who does not drive stick shift.

But her 13 year old son comes home from school everyday and drives the Miata around in the 

pasture and up and down the driveway, getting better every day.  Reminds me of myself at 13!

Iv'e even had him drive over to ask me questions and learn.  Might have a gar guy in the making,

[Steve_Mack_CT]

18 hours ago, John_Mereness said:

A lot of people forget how they became interested in cars - it generally came from seeing them, someone giving them a ride, someone letting them drive, someone showing the features of their car, and ...  My mom's cousing had a car collection that was pretty stellar,  my parents had sports cars, Dad's first employee daily drove a 1929 Stearns Knight that was some time or another over a week parked in our drive, we had an extra garage spot and someone's something or another was always parked in it, there was awesome stuff running around our neighborhood, and ...

Indeed John.  My interest came from family friends, and a ride in a freshly restored 31 A Deluxe roadster.  Rumbleseat, inculding a short stint on the highway, it was a 55 mph limit in those days so right lane in an A was not really ridicules.  Easy to draw the connection why, 10 or so hobby cars later, I am back in an A, oh and it is a 30 roadster!