Wheels: Driving an old car

I’ve always been a purist when it comes to classic cars. I can appreciate modified vehicles and I think restomods — a portmanteau of restored and modified — are a great solution for a safe, modern driver that has that original look, but an original vehicle gives the operator a real window into the past.

Windshield wipers today are passive accessories that don’t require much thought. Rain sensing systems bypass the operator and intermittent function intervals self-adjust to the need for a swipe. But there was a time before electric wiper motors, when vacuum wiper motors ruled. They operated based on the principal that anything that pumps also creates vacuum including your engine. In simplified terms, the engine sucks in and exhaust blows out and that engine vacuum is what was used to power wipers.