THE HAZARD VIEW Every time I see stock car racers slide through a window opening on their backsides to gain access to the interior of their controls, I think of two things: one of the "Dukes" of Hazard who made such action acceptable, and it takes me back to our 1924 Model Ford. It had no door on the divers sided, front. What appeared to be a door just like the others, was really
a swollen noodle of metal, a rounded line pressed into the metal side. You had to up-a-leg to enter.
It was line cut into the surface. From a distance it appeared to be a door not unlike the others. I have heard various explanations as to the need for such and purists like to say it was a "safety" feature placed there to keep a stray or clumsy foot from kicking the rig over the hillside. There were three pedals, some levers, handles and a steering column and wheel at that position. Those who know Henry a bit better know he was less concerned with safety that he was saving. If a "safety feature" printed-on front-left doors might cut costs - why not? Another "reason - the one we were given was that when you used the expandable luggage carrier which came as free extra with our car, covered the door anyway when mounted on the left side the accordian-like metal sections holding our suitcases and boxes covered the left, rear door as well.
Henry Ford didn't worry too much about safety. In fact, he and other early innovators never seemed to think of "motoring" as being as dangerous as some people liked to think it had to be. his assemble line production methods was a real money-saver. In September of 1924,my Father bought Henry's newest Model T - with an expandable, all-metal luggage rack, a free a tire-repair kit and hand pump plus one "spare" tire... all for just a bit over $300.00!
I often wondered Henry made any real money on his car sales. He did not put in any system of cost controls whatsoever until his son Edsel sided with the Defense Department of the United States at war. If he wanted to manufacture B-24 bombers at his new Willow Run plant, built for that purpose, he had to start some way of knowing how much it cost him to build the things he did.
The new version of a moderized Hazard boys movie is on screens right now . I've been holding off seeing it until I can witness every moment of it from behind the steering wheel in my own car in an old-fashioned Drive-In theater. I'm wondering just how the new hazard boys enter and leave their new cars. Front windows are a mite smaller today than they used to be and I can't see at awards for weight reduction of the average Dukes of car riding fame.
A.L.M. October 30, 2005 [c504wds]
