Five car firsts that we take for granted

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Automatic gearboxes did away with the need to fight your way through the cogs using contraptions like this lever.

Things all have to happen for the first time somewhere - even stuff that's so familiar we don't really notice it.

Today we take a look at where five things we take for granted in our cars first happened.

STEERING WHEEL

One of the single most obvious and unchanged things in modern cars, the humble but oh-so-important steering wheel, wasn't always the default method for guiding a car. The earliest models usually were controlled by tillers, but in 1894 Alfred Vacheron competed in the Paris-Rouen race with a Panhard 4hp model, complete with steering wheel. By 1898 Panhard et Levassor cars featured steering wheels as standard equipment and in the same year Charles Rolls imported the first car with a steering wheel into Britain; again, it was a Panhard. So it's safe to say that the steering wheel was introduced to the car by the French. Guess that makes up for their terrible automatic transmissions then.

The automatic gearbox: only in America. At least to start with.

READ MORE:

* Five unnecessary motoring features

Indicators were a flash of inspiration by a company called Phianna.

* Five really good motoring ideas

AUTOMATIC GEARBOX

Seat belts: planes first, cars 30 years later.

Speaking of automatic transmissions, the first one to appear in a car was American. Developed by General Motors for both Cadillac and Oldsmobile, the revolutionary transmission first appeared in 1939, in 1940-model-year Oldsmobiles and was advertised as 'the greatest advance since the self-starter!'

While other forms of semi-auto or push-button 'autos' with clutches had existed before, the GM Hydra-matic was the first proper modern automatic (as we know it today). The first torque-converter auto was introduced by Buick in 1948.

Disc brakes: the round things behind the rubber.

INDICATORS

Back in the early 1900s an American carmaker called Phianna made very expensive vehicles. The average Ford of the day cost around US$345-645, while a custom-bodied Phianna cost a whopping US$5000-6000. So it's no wonder that they featured fancy accessories like V6 engines, stop lights and indicators.

Indicators had been an idea since 1907, but no carmaker fitted them as standard until Rhianna in 1919. We wonder if people reacted to these revolutionary devices like they do to the hi-tech driver assists we are getting today: 'If you can't be bothered sticking your hand out the window to change direction, then you shouldn't be driving!'

SEAT BELTS

Although it also featured such advanced safety features as a padded steering wheel and a padded dashboard, the ill-fated Tucker 48 was also offered with optional seat belts - a world first.

Invented in the mid 1800s, the seat belt had been used in planes since 1911, although it wouldn't be until WWII that their use became standard practice in the military. Nash would be the next to offer the option in 1949, while Ford would follow in 1955. Saab became the first to offer seat belts as standard in 1958, Volvo standardised the three-point belt in 1959 and after that they quickly spread through the industry, because carmakers care so much about their customers. Or profits, or something like that.

DISC BRAKES

Crosley is often credited with being the first manufacturer to introduce disc brakes on the brilliantly named Hot Shot of 1950, but Chrysler actually beat them to it with the 1949 Imperial.

Crosley's system proved to unreliable (not ideal for brakes) because it was adapted from an aircraft braking system with very little development carried out beyond that. Chrysler's system was more complex and expensive, but far more effective. Still, the idea didn't really catch on and, despite Citroen offering disc brakes as standard on the DS in 1955, an American manufacturer wouldn't offer disc brakes again until the Studebaker Avanti of 1963.

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