Today when I was going into dinner I saw the most beautiful car, a red Sunbeam Alpine convertible. When I went into the restaurant I kept mentioning the car to people, and they kept going outside to see it. I never did find out who owned it, but I did find out it was probably a model IV from around 1964.
That makes it a couple years older than this book. I noticed this book mainly because of the pictures of cars on the front. I have a thing for cars from the middle 1960s. I was never interested in any car until the day I got to ride in a 1967 Mustang convertible. I remember it was all white except for this huge dark blue stripe over the top of the car and down the hood. It was love at first sight. If you love cars of this same era, then this is the book for you.
1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Car, by Michael Frome (PB, 1962, $1.25)
I loved the information on seat belts. In 1962 seat belts still weren't standard, but they were getting cheaper. For only $20 you could get two front seat belts installed in a new car. Not only did seat belts provide safety, they also reduced fatigue on long trips, and were comfortable, or so they said. Still, safety was the number one reason to wear them. Research had shown that one third of fatalities could be prevented by using them.
A new innovation was left foot breaking, which could reduce your breaking time by 3/10 of a second. Guess that was one innovation that never caught on.
How to drive when facing a tornado was an interesting section.
Regarding snow tires, apparently they were noisy and wore out quickly. For ice, the things to have were chains. Does anyone still use chains? I remember my dad having to put them on. I also remember they didn't always stay on. Oh, what a racket they make when one came loose!
I loved the chapter on driving history. Did you know in the early days of driving people painted telephone poles to mark where you could drive? Or that originally someone had to walk in front of the car with a red flag to warn people a car was coming! (Even though its top speed was all of 4 m.p.h!) Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to ride in a car on inaugural day. He rode in a white Steamer on top of a 20 gallon copper tank of boiling water. Teddy always was an adventurous soul.
Look for this gem on the new non-fiction table, as of 7/5.
