https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfIoDfJwzv4&ab_channel=CCTUBE-DrivingFails%26RoadRage
Dash cams capture everything. Some of them do so in glorious 1080p or even 4K. Occasionally there’s the odd dash cam clip that’s still interesting even though you can clearly count the available pixels. This wasn’t a problem back in the early days of driving. If someone wanted to create a video of automobiles in action, they did so using film… and that means it can still look wonderful today. Case in point is this clip showing cars driving through Beverly Hills back in the 1930s.
It seems like the idea of lane control was a vague notion for Southern California drivers even back then.
By Jeff Glucker
Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff
I spotted a Packard, possibly a Rolls Royce, and Mater’s grandpa at the 1:48 mark.
I wish there was an IMCDB entry for this.
https://www.imcdb.org/
That is a Packard “tombstone grill” on the car at the 50 second mark. That was how I recognized it.
Two Packards. There’s one overtaking on the right side of the screen at about 0:12, just as the Roller drives off to the left side.
I think it’s a Rolls-Royce Phantom 1, but it seems to have an air intake below the driver’s side windscreen that I can’t find in pictures. No telling who did the coachwork or if any examples survive to be found in an image search.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6fd5c65fba298c7396aba3221ae8d421438cbb26d0dfc8ad255204ce39e202ae.jpg
Phantom I’s were built in the USA in the early 1930s for the American market, and they usually had different and American-made coachwork. Brewster was one of the main body suppliers. A Rolls chassis cost around $13,000 ($229,000 today) in the early 1930s and a fully-bodied cataloged car could cost up to $20,000 ($353,000).
Having your left arm hang out of the driver’s window seems to have been all the rage back then.
Possibly related to this: https://static.dmv.org/image-uploads/Hand_Signal_Graphic.png
Not sure when turn signals became standard equipment.
Of course, didn’t think about that. That’s another skill that has passed, even though seeing it illustrated with a BMW is a bit funny, as BMW drivers seem to have a set of extra signal skills:
(He is trying out the lane-flushing-effectiveness at a dealer)
I would guess that this clip was filmed in 1935 or so. I saw a ’35 Ford coupe cruising along on the left.