A friend in New York remembering the dashboard gear shifting on old French cars - "As I recall, to shift you pulled it out, twisted it and pushed it back in.  It seems like it was usual H pattern but that is a little hazy.  Does this set up ring any bells?"

Our Man in Paris, Ric Erickson - "Oh yeah. Lunatic 2CV's had those. They came out about a yard on second and you had to be careful pushing them up to third. Careful not to ram the pressed-tin dashboard and its cookie-cutter edges. Like I said, they could tear your knuckles to ribbons. Old Citroens had that too, before the war and well into the '50's."

1954 Jaguar XK120 Fixed Head Coupe

1962 Triumph TR3 Roadster

If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me.

These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.

Last updated Saturday, March 10, 2007, 10:30 pm Pacific Time

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 - Alan M. Pavlik