[jtal]

1984 just got closer - hey liberals where is your vaunted rigt to privacy? No doubt they will exempt Government vehicles.

I would love to see a cottage industry consisting of refurbishing cars to eliminate electronics and replace with traditional mechanical olcontrol systems to make them maintainable by ordinary folks.

In fact I wonder how much of the electrical system could be eliminated - manual start, manual transmission, no radio, no AC.

Manual (crank) start could lead to broken arms (though you could rely on push starts). Hard to solve the drive-at-night problem though.

[Nowhere Man]

I would love to see a cottage industry consisting of refurbishing cars to eliminate electronics and replace with traditional mechanical olcontrol systems to make them maintainable by ordinary folks.

In fact I wonder how much of the electrical system could be eliminated - manual start, manual transmission, no radio, no AC.

Manual (crank) start could lead to broken arms (though you could rely on push starts). Hard to solve the drive-at-night problem though.

My father's first car was a 1936 Chevy as a teenager. He could not afford to register it, buy insurance or even buy a battery. Whenever he or his sisters (my aunts) went anywhere, they borrowed a license plate and either ran the car down the hill to get started and/or use the manual crank.

I have a friend with two Model-T's. There is a way to hold the starting crank so if the engine bucks, it will fly out of your hand harmlessly.

In my local area, there is a man who drives a 1906 Buick all year round. It is his only car too. I see him occasionally, sometimes he drives it on the main highways too.

[OneWingedShark]

>In fact I wonder how much of the electrical system could be eliminated - manual start, manual transmission, no radio, no AC.

Even more if you went with a Diesel-engine instead of mogas; Diesels are compression-ignition, meaning they don’t need spark-plugs.