This is one of those old timey videos that’ll put a smile on your face for sure. Filmed in the Los Angeles area during the late 1940s, it shows an inventor’s great idea to aid in parallel parking the huge cars of the era. Simple in concept, it uses a wheel and tire that drops down from the center, of the trunk lifts the rear of the car into the air and pivots the whole car around on its axis. They show the big Caddy being removed from a tight parking space and also spinning 180-degrees in a tight driveway so that the driver could back into the garage. Having once driven a Cadillac of that era for a few miles, it is almost impossible to equate the dimensions of that car to anything modern.
As much as we want to complain about the visibility we have from some modern cars like a Camaro for example, unless you have been driving a car like you’ll see in the video for a LONG period of time, you are about as “blind” to where it stops and starts. Long bulbous nose, a trunk line that drops out of site and a seating position not exactly inclined to make seeing either end of the car a real priority, “parking by feel” must have been the order of the day back then
This quick video should sure make you crack a smile. The inventor certainly had the right idea although we’re sorry to see that the idea never caught on in any meaningful volume.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE INGENUITY IN ACTION!
1953-54, not ’40s. They also did install and publicity with a ’53 Packard as well as this Caddy.
As one who has spent quite a bit of time driving old caddys I can tell you their size belies their ease to drive. The ’58, ’64, and ’76 Eldo’s have incredibly short turning radius’s. The hood ornaments, light minders on top of the fenders and fins on the back quarters give you an idea of where the car ends. About 1 foot from those markers give or take a couple of inches.
The granny sofa seating position gives one good visibility assuming you are taller than 4’6″ including your blue wig.
This idea would be good for those numbnuts who never learned how to properly pull a car into a parallel parking space; generally anyone who was taught to drive in Cali. Those are the ones that pull the nose in first and spend 30 minutes trying to get the ass end of the car out of the traffic lanes.
You did notice that this was invented in LA didn’t ya?
The spare came out of my 61 Falcon too….until I covered the trunk floor with plywood.
I’ve had a couple of car like that too. 🙂