My first car was a 1949 Studebaker 2 door. It was midnight Blue which was very important now in my mind's eye. I liked the way the locks on the door sounded when they were shut - pure music to my ears. It had a lot of use on it and it cost $50. I had just graduated HS. It had the coolest small 6 cylinder flattop engine. It went a very long time between gas stations. It needed a new clutch and some work on its front wishbone spring (I think that's what they were called). Very old automotive technology. My Father did most of the work because he knew much more about car repair than I did - I did some - the brainless work. Besides being blue and easy on gas, the Studebaker had one other cool redeeming value. It had a HILL HOLD. Which was high tech for those days and important living in a hilly area of the world. If you were stopped on a steep hill at a stop sign or stop light and there was a car right stopped right behind you. With a standard clutch set-up, you had to perform a VERY coordinated maneuver. You had to remove you right foot off of the brake and hit the accelerator pedal hard, but not too hard and let out the clutch easy, but NOT too easy - or else you would stall the engine. Which would bring out great qualities of laughter if you had some male friends in your car. With your Father or girl friends, it was the ultimate embarrassment. Worst case scenario, you drifted backwards and banged into the bumper of the cars behind you. Then, things could get HAIRY (as they used to say - for some stupid reason). ......Studebaker had a a solution for that (before automatic transmissions were popular). It was called a HILL HOLD. It used a level that held the cars brake fluid on. So that the driver could take his foot off of the brake pedal when stopped on a hill. Then, say, when the light changed to Green the driver just had to apply gas and let out the clutch pedal. The clutch pedal action released the brake fluid pressure and the car would climb the hill. Easy peasy. Of course, due to more women driving and buying automatic transmissions, the hill hold went the way of the DODO bird. And now you know, the REST of the story.
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