Technical Earliest Hanging Pedals?

Most pre-WWII cars I can think of had the pedals pivoting on the frame. It suits the straightforward early ladder frame concept: pretty much everything functional is attached to the frame. I suspect that hanging pedals started happening somewhere during the late '30s, as cars gained complexity, more and more of which was mounted to the firewall — though I wouldn't be surprised to see a few eccentric outlier examples dating from earlier.

What are the earliest instances you know of?

 

52 Ford?

 

Oldest I know of are in the 1934 Bendix experimental.

 

Wow. Didn't know they did that that early. Now I am curious about the rest of the car.

 

Is that an American car?

 

Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendix_SWC

 

Looks like the 1934 Airflow took a few styling cues from Bendix and visa versa. The Bendix borrowed the DeSoto Airflow grille and headlamp doors to finish the car.HRP

 

It's what was in people's heads as the image of the "car of the future" — at least the less radical version. The more radical version was typefied by the Dymaxions and all the other attempts at rear-engined teardrops, from the Stout Scarab to the Tatra T77 all the way down to the VW Beetle.

 

Interesting. I’ve not seen the Bendix car before.

 

That whole decade (30s) was about pushing the envelope. WW2 sped that up. We took a few years after the war for things to settle down and then we were in the 50s going full steam ahead in everything. Housing, cars, aircraft, tavel leisure etc

 

I've been wondering the same thing. When did aftermarket "Anson" pedals come out? I haven't been able to figure it out in my old catalogs.

 

Thinking back, the first production version I recall is the 1960 Chevy pickups. Also, the first hydraulic clutch slave cylinder I remember. May have been earlier, just the first I saw.

jack vines

 

I guess you never had 52 Ford car so I’m guessing FOMOCO cars did then. Chevrolet cars started in 55 with their cars so possibly all GMs did.. Not a MOPAR guy or know the smaller manufacturers.

 

Looks like Mopar and Rambler got 'em in '55 too, so Ford was the industry leader. Studebaker didn't have them until '57.

Trucks were late to the party, Ford didn't have them until '57, Dodge '59, Chevy waited until '60.

 

Go back to post #2.

 

Had a question mark so I needed to check but was pretty sure he was correct as my 54 had swing pedals.. Post #12 just missed the decade