Every new generation of drivers becomes accustomed to certain technologies while losing – or never even developing – connection to older ones. Many young drivers don’t know how to drive a manual transmission; others have never been behind the wheel of a car with a cassette player. In a recent video, David Swift, the executive producer of Jay Leno’s Garage, learns how to drive a car that came out 25 years before Jay Leno himself was born: a 1925 Ford Model T.
Leno’s Model T is a deceptively simple car. As a “Mennonite” Model T marketed toward members of the Anabaptist Christian faith, it’s all-black and devoid of chrome or flash. The four-cylinder engine doesn’t have water or oil pumps. There isn’t even a speedometer on the dashboard.
As Swift learns, the Model T isn’t quite as straightforward as it seems. Hand-cranking the engine is both physically taxing and difficult (luckily Leno’s Model T has an electric starter). There is no PRND layout to the two-speed transmission. There are three pedals, but they aren’t clutch, gas, and brake as many modern drivers would expect them to be. Instead, the handbrake on the far left is used as a sort of neutral, the left pedal is for switching between high and low gear, the middle pedal is reverse, and the one on the right is the brake – for the rear wheels only. So where is the gas? Technically, it’s on the steering wheel, where a lever is used to control the throttle.
Swift gets the privilege of driving Leno’s car and receiving a private lesson from him, but he’s also under the pressure of quickly memorizing complex instructions while not grenading the Model T’s hardware or crashing into somebody as Leno (and millions of viewers) watch him. How does he do? Take a deep breath to calm your nerves, then click the play button on the video below.
