Stupid question. Why are early Ferrari cars right hand drive?

Due to location of driver on race cars of the day.

Regards,

Art S.

 

I think it was like that for the weight distribution because the fact that the most tracks are clockwise.

Am i wrong?

 

ALL old Alfa's & Lancia's were RHD until as late as the early 1950's when they started making LHD. Italy used to drive on the left, so this follows.
I suggest that Ferrari when starting out in 1947 built RHD cars, simply because that was their Countries "standard" a RHD and to match their competition in their home market.

 

I read that somewhere a long time ago.

 

No-no-no... we've been here before... streets were dirty as there were mules everywhere so owners of expensive cars preferred to step directly to the sidewalk after parking .

And in racing cars it has nothing to do with weight distributions, it is all about seeing the curve.

 

Initially it was so the chauffeur could exit quickly to open the curbside passenger door.

 

But the mules always walk on the left side of the road, like every well educated horses,,,because when you cross another rider you don't want your sword to hit each other and sword are hanging on the left side of the horse,,,because most people are right handed so to get their sword in action they were taking it with their right hand from the left side of their body.
For the same reason you always get on a horse, by tradition, from the left side so you can move your leg without hitting the horse with your sword!
So this equestrian tradition behind horses and right handed riders is behind the riding on the left for cars and trains etc and as a consequence RHD for cars. This is different from RHD in race cars, not linked to sword, and horses but as mentioned to clockwise direction of most circuits.

 

I profess little knowledge of mules nor swords.

I was speaking to regions where vehicular traffic is on the right. Hence on a right hand drive car the driver is curb handy.

 

Never heard this before but it makes sense!

 

A good article. A perfectly logical reason to drive on the left ruined by the French.

Any truth to the story that early American cars were predominantly right hand drive until Henry Ford influenced the switch ?

 

Oooops

Why do some countries drive on the left and others on the right? - World Standards

 

Beyond the true racing reasons, here are some considerations (from Italy) about this issue :

1) In Italy , road traffic changed from left to right hand since 1/1/1924.
2) At that time, our roads were rather narrow and the most part remained so till the sixties , the years of great changes .
3) Due to the above reason, the most part of drivers felt safer when driving a RHD car, since in this way it was easier to follow the right side of the road, especially when happens to meet another vehicle coming from the opposite direction.
4) Even the more skilled drivers didn't agreed the changes of 1924, so , they preferred for many years to buy RHD cars. In the mean time a RHD car pointed out , the distinction of his owner/driver.
5) So, particularly the premium Italian car brands, in those years (and till the end of fifties) built most of their cars RHD because, this represented also a good solution of marketing, being RHD cars good for internal market and for the markets under British influence.

Things changed when the roads became larger and safer in the ’60 and when the last diehards drivers, realized that it was more comfortable, to pay tolls on motorways or to show documents at customs borders, from the left window...


Ciao

Andrea

 

Most Race cars are right hand drive because most race courses are run clockwise therefore there are more right hand turns and you can drive faster if you can better see more apexes.

 

I wonder why the majority are clockwise given the majority of horse and probably all athletics tracks run the other way

 

Also American oval track racing --- like Indianapolis --- run counter-clockwise.

 

Does this 1924 rationale apply to the French cars as well? Why were Bugattis, for instance, RHD? Thanks.

john

 

You are absolutely right. When we tried our race track counter clockwise, times were better by a half a sec. or so, huge difference in vintage cars.

The track though, became downright scary, as had always been designed to be run clockwise.

Regards, Alberto

 

The changes of 1924 only concern Italy while, in France, the traffic has always circulated on the right side. But also in France the situation of the road network wasn't so different from Italy. The first French motorway was opened in 1946 (in Italy in 1924).

So, I think that the reasons that have seen so many RHD cars in Italy were the same as in France and, any way, also in France the premium brands have made the prevalent choice of the RHD while the popular ones made the opposite.

Someone argue also that the reason was that it was better for the chauffeur to stop the car near the sidewalk allowing an easier descent of the rear passenger.

Some others says that it was an heritage coming from the cars of the '20s that had the hand brake lever, and in some cases also the gear lever, outside on the right side of the car. All the racing Bugattis 35/37/39 shows the right outside lever.

In any case I don't believe that RHD it was due to a mechanical reason.

Ciao

Andrea

 

But we can be very adaptable, you know, and follow british practice from time to time: for instance, trains in France do drive on the same track than the british trains...

Except in the three departments that were annexed by Germany in 1871, where the development of railway travel was done by the Germans (because these three annexed departments became Germany), so trains in those three departments were traveling on the opposite track than in the rest of France...
And they still do today: after being reunited to France in 1918, the amount of work to be done to change the tracks was considered too complicated, so it was kept as it was: coming into one of these three departments form the rest of France, trains use a cross-over ("un saute-mouton", in french railway parlance) to change tracks on the "old forgotten border"...
How 'bout that?

Rgds

 

Gare du Nord and St Pancreas maybe linked by the same railway gauge but such Anglo/Gallic collaboration is historically rare. Miles/Kilometres, Pounds/Kilograms, Fahrenheit/Centigrade, Gallons/Litres are prime examples of the individualism that exists between us.

Vive la difference !

 

I do agree fully Kim...I do not see any need for standardising everything, on the contrary. Even if I have to admit that I don't have any problems to use Miles, Feet, Inches, Pounds and Gallons; but it becomes rather more difficult for me to shift to acres and cubic inches/feet...

Rgds