Welcome to possibly the happiest car I've ever driven.
I literally have fun driving this thing around a parking
lot and I'm going to tell you why.
So this is a 1930s model A.
It is a very important car in automotive history.
A lot of people own these and it was.
The way to get around it was the point A
to point B for many people.
Now this is the 4 cylinder engine.
Not to be confused with the V8 Ford which came
out a little bit later,
but man, this thing is
so hard to describe so I'm just going to show
you OK,
to get this party started.
First gear, instead of this you go down.
That is reverse. I push the clutch in,
I make sure that my idol and spark is adjusted,
which is really weird. And I pull straight down
and I let off the clutch,
and there's a button on the floor that's the gas
pedal.
And I gently take off.
And now
I can't even think there's too much going on.
So now I push in the clutch,
go to neutral, clutch again,
then go into second. It's a double clutch.
And I messed up already.
Good job, David. All right,
so clutch in, double, clutch
into second. OK, we're good.
Tune along. It's cool because the Speedo on the little
dash in here that's color match with the rest of
the car,
it just rotates. It doesn't have the needle on it,
it just rotates back and forth just like this.
OK, just slow down. I clutch,
go into neutral,
stop. There's no assistant brakes at all,
and I apologize that I'm probably going to do most
of my talking points while not driving because the camera
vibration is so bad.
Clutching
first gear,
off we go. No, no blinker hand signals,
no power steering.
Come on. Neutral clutch, double clutch.
Second.
OK, how did people do this?
Well, I guess they didn't.
They didn't have a choice really,
so I guess that makes sense.
OK, and 3rd gear straight down.
OK, so I readjusted the Spark and it instantly transformed
the car and how it performs.
Everything is completely analogue. There's no power steering as a
giant steering wheel because you don't have a choice.
It's just wild. There's no seat belt.
There's no seat belt. So it feels really,
really weird not to be buckled in.
Or no new car beeping at you to put your
seat belt on.
Invisibility is really good, but this car,
I can tell you what was not made for tall
people
at all. Literally, my knees are almost hitting the steering
wheel,
which is crazy. The Model A is just such a
cool piece of car history because you never see these
on the road anymore.
Colin, the owner of this car,
his granddad, had it. And during
Colin's entire lifetime, it kind of sat every now and
then.
But then it went to family reunions.
Everybody drove it. It was a piece of their
family's car history. And now it's
given to Colin Doors. If you don't close them all
the way,
you have to basically last them yourselves in a way,
somewhere else it comes out,
I feel like I'm going to go steal a bunch
of moonshine.
That's like the initial impression I have.
So cool. But the wipers are
don't kill me. The tires on it are super tiny,
but I love the color contrast that this car has.
They're just different colors all over the place.
And cars aren't really painted like this anymore.
If you think about it,
it's just one solid color and
not a lot of personality.
Everybody waves, everybody smiles though,
and if you're in the way of people,
people just go around you and it's like,
no hard feelings. Most cruising this slow in a modern
car,
I would have road rage find that car,
but then it's a model.
Model AI just don't care.
It seems through like a really fun time.
Oh God, the wind is really strong today,
so I have to be kind of careful.
It does get pretty hot as well because I can
feel it coming off the transmission or the shifter right
against my leg.
So a bunch of fluid came out of the front
and then I stopped the car to make sure everything
was OK.
But of course, Colin, here I was like,
Oh yeah, it's fine, just readjust a few things.
So that's what we're going to do.
So at idle, the sparks all the way up.
And then when you're cruising around,
it's all the way down,
all the way down, all the way down,
all the way down. OK,
we're OK now. OK, clutch
first.
Zero to 60 in 10 minutes.
OK come on
clutch. Clutch again. Second. OK,
spark adjust. Oh OK
Clutch
third. OK, spark all the way down.
Everything. Oh yeah, that sounds a lot healthier than it
was earlier.
That was nerve wracking. The flu came out of the
front,
right next to the emblem.
It was just like boom,
like not today. But it's just funny how you're driving
this around in the country,
in South Carolina. And it's just like the good old
American dream.
People used to drive cross country in these things.
I could not imagine doing that.
But it was faster than a horse,
so I guess that's an improvement.
I'm like big towing the gas now to make sure
everything stays cool.
But now the actual, like ride itself.
The car makes a lot of vibration,
but the actual ride itself is actually pretty smooth.
Helps out we're on brand new pavement too.
This is by far the oldest car I've ever driven
and it really shows in a good way
and that things have come a long way.
This feels a lot like relearning like 3 on the
tree.
3 on the tree is shifted weird.
This is even weirder because if you don't double clutch
it,
you're not going into gear and you hurt the car.
After a while it would just become muscle memory to
double clutch it.
But you know you're in the modern car.
It's no big deal. Boom.
You just get in and clutch down shift,
you're good. You told me to go uphill.
You got to be kind of wary to be in
second or third.
So
this thing hates hills, that's for sure.
It's just cruising along. I thought that VW Bug I
drove was slow.
This is a whole another level,
but that's not what it's about.
It's not about being fast,
it's more about it's almost like a time capsule.
When you're in this, you just go back to a
much simpler time
and everything in here is just completely mechanical.
And the transmission, The reason you can't
not double clutch it, excuse me?
It's because it has no synchros in the transmission,
it was just meant to work.
It also has a seat out in the back.
If you want to bring your friends along,
you have a little foot bench for it too.
I think that's really cool.
I feel like if you drove one of these a
really far distance,
you'd have to plan your trip out accordingly.
This is definitely a car for a low traffic area,
for sure. I love the look of this though.
I mean, it's really tall and kind of awkward,
but that's what makes it kind of charming.
And it sits kind of high up.
You'd think that would be pretty low,
'cause it's an old car,
you sit pretty high up,
your visibility is pretty good,
You can see out of everywhere,
get a little bit of storage behind you,
you know, right behind your seat,
and that's it.
Everything's color match, everything's painted directly.
Touch hand signal. Right. Turn the spark down.
Wait, did I also mention this thing as hand controls?
All right, Clutch. Ah, the car died.
No other. No starter pedal up there.
Up there. That's right. Listen,
you're good.
All right,
All right. Back, safe and sound.
That was an experience, experience I will never forget,
especially with just how much there is to manage to
drive this thing around.
It's so different than a modern car,
modern car we take for,
like so much. Granted, we turn the key and we
just go,
especially with automatic transmission, but this,
man, it is just, it's almost a skill and an
art to drive this thing around.
That's what makes it so fun.
I'm really glad I did it though.
And huge, huge things to call it for inviting me
up here.
I loved it. So if you like this,
let me know if I should do more cars like
this.
I would love to kind of branch out new,
more classic cars and I'll see you guys next time.
Take it easy. Have a fantastic day.
Goodbye.
The car died.
Car died.
The car died.
It's dead. It's off.
Car's off.