Take a journey through the decades at Flywheel Festival

Milestone car: the 1901 Toledo Steam Carriage adopted Ackerman steering
Tom Horna

Who wasn’t impressed when they first experienced the wonder of a self-parking car, sat-nav or traction systems that keep us glued to the road in treacherous conditions?

All are milestones on a journey motorists have been making since the dawn of the car — and there is nowhere better to see how these vital, incremental developments unified to deliver the vehicles we have today than at the Flywheel Festival of historic motoring, aviation and military endeavour, on July 2-3.

I had a sneak preview of key show vehicles with Vintage Sports Car Club’s former president, Peter Glover.

One of the milestone cars he showed me at Flywheel venue Bicester Heritage near Oxford was the 1901 Toledo Steam Carriage.

Steam had been powering machinery for a century or so but the Toledo cleverly incorporated Ackerman steering (enabling the inner wheel to turn in more sharply, a principle used today) and chain drive to compensate for suspension movement. But still it had crude tiller steering — and no electricity. By 1924, cars were more luxurious, as demonstrated by the Vauxhall 30/98’s “proper” windscreen (no wipers but split so that rain would run off).

By 1934, the Frazer Nash had leaped another obstacle — manual gearboxes that were routinely slow and tricky — with a clever system of chains, cogs and a “Wriggly Monkey” that manipulated the cogs, delivering fast, smooth changes and spawning myriad imitators, leading to refined gearboxes that soon became commonplace.

Other key developments that made motoring easier by the decade — exemplified by the cars exhibited at Flywheel, as well as some fine motorcycles, such as these two Ariels pictured, a ’28 Model E 500cc single and a ’56 Fieldmaster — included illuminated “trafficators”, or indicators from the Thirties.

“The sheer variety and number of cars at Flywheel makes it possible to trace almost every key stepping stone towards the modern car,” says Glover. “It’s been a long journey — and one we’re still making.”

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