1941 Plymouth Deluxe 4-Door Sedan In-line 6 3-Speed Manual
My first car. My parents bought it for me for my 16th birthday in 1953. I had to wait to drive it until I passed the Pennsylvania State driving test. I passed it on the first try. That is a story for another time.
The Plymouth was a large car, you could sort of walk into it and sit down. The problem was it was way underpowered. It was definitely not the best car for central Pennsylvania where I was born and raised. Too many hills. The windshield wipers were vacuum powered and when the car was struggling to get up a hill the wipers stopped working.
The car had vacuum assisted shifting on the column mounted shifter. It made for very short throws from gear to gear, but the car hissed every time you shifted. I liked to sit at the traffic light in my home town and shift back and forth between second and third gear. It made the car sound like it was breathing.
The previous owner had replaced the factory shift knob with a very heavy chrome plated one. When the car was in second gear, all you had to do was put in the clutch to shift gears. The knob was so heavy that the lever dropped from second to third gear by itself.
The Plymouth had an after-market radio in it. It was a Motorola radio and was mounted under the dash. At night when we were riding around we could get stations from far away cities like Buffalo, New York. That was where we first heard rock-n-roll music.Life was never the same again.
This is the only picture I can find of the Plymouth. I think that is Mom driving it and we at my Grandmother Booth’s house on Second Street. It is obviously winter what with the coating of mud and road salt.
The car had vacuum assisted shifting on the column mounted shifter. It made for very short throws from gear to gear, but the car hissed every time you shifted. I liked to sit at the traffic light in my home town and shift back and forth between second and third gear. It made the car sound like it was breathing.
The previous owner had replaced the factory shift knob with a very heavy chrome plated one. When the car was in second gear, all you had to do was put in the clutch to shift gears. The knob was so heavy that the lever dropped from second to third gear by itself.
The Plymouth had an after-market radio in it. It was a Motorola radio and was mounted under the dash. At night when we were riding around we could get stations from far away cities like Buffalo, New York. That was where we first heard rock-n-roll music.Life was never the same again.
This is the only picture I can find of the Plymouth. I think that is Mom driving it and we at my Grandmother Booth’s house on Second Street. It is obviously winter what with the coating of mud and road salt.
No comments:
Post a Comment