Classic Car Roadworthiness

I was driving in New England recently on a one-week vacation. As is to be expected, the interstates were crowded and moving at high speed. These days, 75 mph is the norm on the interstates and 80 mph is not at all uncommon. The prevailing flow of traffic has increased in speed over the past two decades, chiefly due to improvements in tires, brakes and suspensions.

While driving those roads I saw a couple classic cars, en route to who-knows-where? One was a '56 Ford Fairlane and the other a '58 Chevy 4-door sedan. In the case of the Ford, the driver was keeping up with the flow of traffic. Therefore, he was rolling along at 75 mph. His Y-Block engine was turning very fast, probably between 3500 and 4000 rpm, and the car was wandering to and fro in the lane due to the non-radial tires and front end alignment inherent to cars of that era. The Chevy, on the other hand, was driven in the right lane at approximately 60 mph, which meant all the cars behind him eventually passed around.

What this observation tells me is that our older cars aren't very roadworthy anymore, at least when it comes to driving the interstates. The trouble is, most of us east of the Mississippi have to travel on interstates for some distance, even if our intent is to take the secondary roads. To do so in a 50s or 60s car means that the engines and cooling systems are stressed and the cars are moving too fast for their OEM braking systems to safely bring them down in an emergency.

If we intend to drive our old cars to any reasonable extent we need to consider upgrading them to handle modern road travel. That means we need to equip them with bigger brakes or convert to front discs (rear drums are just fine) and use radial tires. When getting the front ends aligned, ask the technician to incorporate caster, camber and toe-in adjustments more in line with today's cars - and roads. These adjustments will wear the tires a little more than the originals would have, but modern tires (radials, especially) last a whole lot longer than the old tires anyway.

As for the engines, beef up the cooling systems by having the radiators re-cored with greater capacity. Since the only ways to cut down the revs at high speeds are to change the rear axle ratio, retrofit an overdrive transmission or increase the wheel diameter (all of which should be considered during restoration) the simplest way to keep the engine happy is to keep it cool. Also, retrofit the distributor to an electronic ignition. Ignition points don't like extended high-speed running.

Why am I bringing all this up? The reason is simple; I don't want to see all these neat old cars become garage-queens because their owners are too intimidated by high speed traffic to drive them. The fixes are rather simple and inexpensive, so why not make some changes and enjoy the ride?