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Originally Posted by Patrick L.
There was very little 60 mph driving in the 30s. The roads weren't up to it. A salesman driving one on probably the only paved road in the town he was trying to sell the car in was taken to 60 just to show the prospective buyer it would go that fast.
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This simply just is not true. I guess I have paid more attention to this as I often route tours on paved secondary roads in the Appalachia areas that when I researched them I find they were old trails or dirt roads that were often hard paved in the mid to late 1920s. We are talking paved two-lane roads with a speed limit today of 55-60 mph however back in the Model-A era, these roads did not have posted speed limits. Paved sections of roads date back into the early teens with highways such as the Lincoln Highway. In the areas of major populous cities, there were WAY more well paved secondary roads than most would probably like to believe. These roads were very conducive to the advertised Ford speeds.
And one other point to note about these road conditions, -think about the high-end automobiles manufactured during the Model-A manufactured era. Why do you think manufacturers like Duesenberg equipped some of their automobiles with 320+ horsepower, -or Cadillac with V-12 & V-16 engines, ...or Peerless, Marmon, Lincoln, Pierce Arrows all with V-12 &/or V-16 engines making upwards of 4X the horsepower of a Model-A engine? These cars were not purchased and used by people who drove 30 mph on muddy roads. The reason these automobiles (-and by even more manufacturers that I did not mention) were equipped with big engines and had advertised speeds in excess of 80 mph were because there WERE many roads around the country that could be traveled at those 55-65 mph speeds. Their owners requested and purchased these larger engines because there was an ability to travel at faster speeds. Even the 1930-31 Chevrolet had an advertised top speed of 85 mph!! We are only kidding ourselves if we choose not to believe this simply because there were too many automobiles that were manufactured during the Model-A manufactured era that could be driven WAY faster than a Model-A.