That's right. In the DVD commentary James Monaco goes on quite a bit about how well he knew his cars of the era, but incorrectly identified the Rath family Ford as a 1949. The 1949 and 1950 Fords are very similar, but the '49 has a smaller hood ornament and has pull-to-open door handles. My brother had one. The 1950 model has the bigger hood ornament and push button door handles.
The goofs section for this movie states that "At the very end of the movie, Tom shifts the 1950 Ford manual transmission into reverse in order to pull forward." I don't think Tom shifts the transmission into reverse. Second gear was also selected by moving the shift lever up. Those old cars with long stroke engines had plenty of low speed torque and the rear axle ratio on the overdrive equipped cars was a low 4.11:1. Lots of people used to skip gears to reduce the amount of shifting. My mother almost always shifted from first directly to third in our 1950 Chevrolet. In the 1920s and 1930s cars were often rated for their acceleration not from 0 to 60 mph, but from 4 to 60 mph in TOP GEAR! I think Tom was starting in 2nd gear and relying on clutch slip to get going without stalling.
reply
share
liscarkat (18999)
3 years ago
Those 1950s cars with "three on the tree" were fairly easy to start from a stop in second gear. You get it in second by lifting the gearshift up and pushing it forward, and in reverse by lifting it straight up while pulling it slightly toward you. The two motions would look about the same if you weren't really watching closely.
reply
share