How to start your car

Last weekend, I volunteered to drive classic cars across the auction block at the Owls Head Transportation Museum's 36 Annual Auto Auction.  Seeing so many classic cars in one venue is a real treat.  Some of these old cars, like the Jaguar E-type displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, are great works of art.  And others, well, not so much...

And the Museum is a real treasure, too.  Almost every old car in the collection drives, and almost every old plane   flies.  During weekend events, the museum's  volunteers will drive the Ford Model Ts and take visitors for rides, and the museum's pilots will fly aircraft.  Watching World War I era aircraft fly around the Museum while modern aircraft take off and land at nearby Knox County airport is a lesson in aviation history.

So, how do you start your car?   This is where the fun begins.  Most of us grew up starting cars with three-position ignition switches:   Off, Run, Start.  Lately, a few upscale manufacturers are installing a separate Start button, often in conjunction with a keyless entry system.   It's an old twist to a new problem:  Austin-Healey roadsters from the early 50's through the early 60's used the same arrangement:  There's a two-position ignition switch and a separate starting button labelled "S".

Newer (say, post 1950) cars use a lightweight switch that operates a heavy-duty relay.   The large current required to start a engine mandates the use of a heavy-duty switch between the battery and the starter motor. So, cars with small Start button on the dash, or cars that start using the ignition switch, all have relays.

On older cars of the 20s, 30s, and 40s, there is no relay, just a heavy-duty switch, usually located on the floor.  The switch springs are so strong that it requires foot pressure to operate them comfortably.  Starting these cars usually requires a little tap-dance to find the button, but once you've found it, you're all set.

So, sitting in a 1952 Buick Special, I was puzzled because after looking for the usual suspects, I couldn't find the starter switch.

"Push the accelerator to the floor" someone wiser than me said.

"Huh?"

"Push the accelerator to the floor.  That will start it."

So I did, and the engine turned over and fired up.  Buick engineers craftily linked the starter switch to the accelerator pedal.  I don't know why; perhaps to make it easier to restart if you stalled?

The really old stuff, pre-1920, have hand-cranks.  Hand-cranking is handy when the battery is weak, you need more exercise, or you just want to impress people.  It's also a great way to injury yourself if an engine backfires:  your arm and shoulder strength vs. a twenty-horsepower engine.  Do the math:  you're no match for a cantankerous engine.

 Finally, you drive off.  More fun now, especially with large American sedans of the 50s and 60s.  It's really amazing how much you have to turn the steering wheel before the car actually begins to change direction!  And the power brakes that are so sensitive you could stop the car with your little finger on the pedal.  But, most of these cars drive pretty much like a modern car.  You will see three-speed manual transmissions, or reverse hidden in odd places, or push-button automatics, or manual transmissions with shifters on the steering column.  If the car is English, then the driver sits in the right-hand seat.  But, at least the clutch is on the left, the brake pedal in the middle, and the accelerator on the right.

Except for the Ford Model T:  transmission pedal is on the left, reverse pedal is in the middle, and the brake pedal is on the right.  The accelerator (better called the throttle control) is the right paddle on the steering column.  Ford started building Model Ts around 1908 when there was no standard layout, and Ford built 15 million of them, so the T really makes a standard.  In fact, 15 million cars makes the Model T the second-most popular car of all time.  Only VW made more cars of one model:  20 million Beetles make the Bug the most popular car ever.

Happy motoring!