Reply To: High Speed Gears or Overdrive

[Gregory Long]

From my driving experiences in old cars, if you are on a tour,driving a 40mph car, or slower is just fine. You are with a group of other ‘speed impaired’ cars.

But, Say if you want to go to friend’s 25 miles away, for dinner, and will be coming back after dark, driving an old car with dim and minimal rear lighting, and driving under the speed limit by 10 or 20mph. is just inviting to be rear-ended.

So for me, being able to drive comfortably at 50-55mph instead of 40mph and being a rolling road-block is a safety issue. Having people not recognize that there is a slow moving car in front of them, then going into road-rage or totally stupid in order to pass you is incredibly unsafe.

As for the in-gear or not-in-gear possible situation, yes it can happen, but I think I have to TRY to not get it in gear. I would not want to have a totally hidden, inaccessible shift in a car that needs to be in gear for the power brakes foot brakes to operate.

And it needs to be said: the ’33, ’34, and ’35 cars with Stewart Warner power brakes ALSO have very good brakes using the parking brake or emergency brake handle, and the hand brake is applied to ALL FOUR wheels.

I can almost lock the brakes on my 836 with the hand brake.. it certainly is not convenient, or ergonomic, but it is a very effective emergency brake.

The question of safety of driving our old cars ‘at speed’ will be a discussion that can go on forever. I know that some cars are being driven with older tires, possible loose steering, marginal brakes, poor shocks etc..

But just how good are the other cars on the road with us? Good tires ? Good shocks? Worn ball joints and tie-rod ends? And the driver texting their friends, with the sound system at 110 decibels?

I think an old car, driven by someone ‘in tune’ with DRIVING a car, is not just pointing a power assisted., auto transmission’d, electronically controlled appliance down the road, distracted by the radio, programing a GPS etc. A person driving an old car is DRIVING the car, he or she can feel the road, feel the wind, feel the engine, and because of this is involved with driving. I believe that this makes an old car equally as safe as a poorly maintained ‘modern’ car driven by an uninvolved, distracted driver.

Since this is a thread about High-Speed Gears vs Overdrive, I’ll get back on subject. The most recent vendor for high speed gears really soured that option for me, I’ve heard of many issues with these gear sets. And while the Mitchell is not silent in OD, it is silent in direct. The high speed gears were noisy all the time.

When I had a ’27 sedan with mountain gearing, it was a rolling road-block, I regularly pulled over to let the lineup of cars behind me to pass when on 55mph secondary roads. This spoiled my enjoyment of this car, except when, once or twice a year i’m on a tour.

Because of the road speed issue, I went looking and found my ’33 836 Club Sedan. It’s definitely a driver, and it has been driven, several thousand miles a year. But even with a relatively comfortable 50-55mph cruise speed, I still did not enjoy going on an hour drive in the car. But with the OD, 60-65 is comfortable, more comfortable than 55 was without the OD. And going someplace an hour drive away is not something I dread anymore.

I do pay attention to DRIVING, I have two hands on the wheel, looking for passing traffic, driving DEFENSIVELY. Could a tire blow out? sure, would it be more dangerous at 65mph, than at 50mph? sure. But since I’m INVOLVED, I think I’m much safer than the out of touch person with one or two fingers on the steering wheel, looking at their smartphone, with the radio at 110 decibels. A blown tire in this scenario will end up with the car off the road and likely upside down. The driver is not aware until it is too late that the car has a problem then over reacts.

I wish I was bringing my ’33 836 to Warwick, to demonstrate the car with the OD, but I will have my ’25 Touring car there, and it is also equipped with a Mitchell OD.

Greg L