Time Passages

Back in the ’90s – when I was in my 20s – I got invited to test drive a bunch of old cars, many of them made decades before I was born. Among them was a Model T Ford and if you have never driven one it is doubtful you know how – even if you’ve been driving for decades – because just about all the controls are different and do different things. Someone had to show me what the pedals did – and what the little lever on the steering wheel was for (spark advance). Shifting was a whole ‘nother thing.

Did I mention that starting the engine was done outside the car, via a detachable crank handle that used to rotate the engine manually? Be careful not to break your wrist . . .

Of course, people who were around when the Model T was new – and even when it was old – knew how to start/drive one because that’s just how cars were back then. It took awhile for the T to become ancient and uncommon, by which time almost no one who wasn’t ancient themselves (or been showed how by an ancient) knew how to start much less drive one.

Time passed.

Now it’s 2025 and the ’90s are probably as ancient-seeming to people who are in their 20s today as the 1920s were to people my age, when we were in our 20s back in the ’90s. Here are some of the things about cars that people who were in their 20s back in the ’90s know all about but which people in their 20s today probably have no idea about:

Pull-knobs for air ducts –

Believe it or not, air conditioning was considered a luxury feature before the ’90s and was usually optional in all but the most expensive luxury cars before the ’80s. Many people did without because they could not afford this luxury. To make driving bearable, most cars that lacked air conditioning came standard with something that cooled down the car’s interior for free (our favorite price). That being a system of ducts that could be opened (and closed) via pull knobs located somewhere in the footwell area. These allowed air to come in without allowing the rain to come in and (unlike the wing vent windows many cars of this era also had). It was a kind of po’ folks AC and – ironically – it was part of the reason why po’ folks could afford new cars back then more easily than they can now. Because the cars back then cost less, in part because you didn’t have to pay extra for AC.

Pumping the gas pedal – 

In the first place, cars used to actually have gas pedals. Today, they have accelerator pedals. The difference isn’t just semantics. The gas pedal was physically connected to the mechanism (i.e., the carburetor) that metered gas to the engine; when you pushed down on the gas pedal, a cable attached to it worked the carburetor’s throttle; a quick stab of your right foot physically squirted gas into the engine. Modern cars have computers that register the downward pressure of your right foot and the computer then tells the fuel injectors how much gas to squirt.

In cars that have mechanically actuated gas pedals and mechanical fuel delivery systems (carburetors) it is usually necessary to pump the gas pedal a couple of times before you try to start the engine, if it is cold. You do this to spritz a little gas into the engine and to set the choke, which is a mechanical fuel enrichment device that is typically thermostatically controlled. If the engine is cold, the choke will automatically close an air door on top of the carb when you first push down on the gas pedal. This is what richens up the air-fuel mix at cold start and that is what helps the engine to start. Once the engine is warm – which takes a minute or three – you push down on the gas pedal again to release the choke. The car is now ready to drive. In modern cars with accelerator pedals, you just turn the key (or push the button) and the electronic fuel injection system automatically adjusts the air-fuel mix as necessary – and there is no need to wait a minute or three to allow the engine to warm up before you drive off.

Oval air cleaners (and lids you could flip) – 

Sometime around the time electronic fuel injection and accelerator pedals replaced carburetors and gas pedals, square and rectangle-shaped air cleaners in square and rectangle-shaped housings replaced oval air cleaners housed in oval-shaped air cleaner assemblies that had lids which could easily be flipped. The lid was held down by a single wing nut that threaded onto a single stud. As opposed to the multiple snap-catches and so on that typically secure modern air cleaner assemblies.

But why would anyone want to flip the lid? Why, to hear the moan of the four barrel when you floored the gas pedal! It made the car sound like it was much faster and it was also as easy to do as removing a wingnut and flipping the lid. Anyone could do it in less than 30 seconds, no tools required.

Hoods that could be popped from outside the car – 

From the time of the Model T at the turn of the 20th century almost to the end of the 20th century, America was what some people refer to as a high-trust society. It meant that, for the most part, you didn’t worry about someone opening the hood of your car, for the same reason that people who didn’t live in the city didn’t worry about someone opening their front door, which they generally left unlocked.

As America changed, it became riskier to leave your front door unlocked – and also the hood of your car. Most cars made since roughly the mid-late 1980s have hoods that you open from inside the car. This does make it harder for people who aren’t you to open the hood of your car if the doors are locked but its also a sign of the times and of the fact that America is no longer a high-trust society.

Rolling up the antenna – 

When was the last time you saw a vehicle that had a mast antenna? As Elvis used to say, it’s been a long time, baby. For most of the history of the car – at least, for most of the period of time when cars came equipped with radios (and then stereos) they came equipped with mast-style antennas. Inexpensive models had fixed antennas, which were vulnerable to being bent by a cretinous teenager (or cretinous adult). Fancier models had power antennas that could be rolled down or even did so automatically when the engine was shut off or the radio was turned off.

Since about the early 2000s, most new cars have dispensed with those old-school mast-type antennas in favor of what are commonly referred to as “shark fin” antennas that are mounted fixed-in-place on the roof and painted body color. These are much harder to damage, which is a good thing. But they are also used to enable creepy (Big Brother) “connectedness” – i.e., the transmitting and receiving of all kinds of data about your vehicle and you, too.

I worry less about cretinous teenagers bending my antenna than I do about cretinous corporations.

But your mileage may vary.

. . .

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