Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Right Hand Drive

Jacques
Many thanks for the explanation

I completely agree. I'm corrie-fistit as well.

Do you mean sinister ?

No, sinistra.

I was just being heraldic with you....

Ah! I'm a great supporter of mantling Dexter's escutcheon.

Napoleon started with right hand traffic and forced other to join. Austria was after the french pulled back divided into areas with right hand and left hand traffic. Finally the were united in the late thirties...

Miklos

More easily answered by an oldie like me. The reason is simple. Back in the days when those cars were made, the UK was far wealthier than the peasant economies of countries like France and Switzerland and Italy. We had more wealthy men interested in motor racing and cars.

I saw exactly the same thing at Classic le Mans where maybe half the old cars bore UK registration numbers.

Lancia were predominantly right hand drive up until, I think, WW2. I can't find the date but it was probably optional for a period. I have been told that it was so that the driver could better see the edge of the road when edging past another vehicle on narrow mountain roads.

Another advantage is that when parking the driver can easily exit on the side away from passing traffic.

PS. I have just found that the Lancia Aurelia B20 was only available in RHD from its initial model in 1951 until 1954.

PPS. Another Lancia peculiarity The Lancia Lambda of the 1920s is right hand drive, typical of the Lancia and its time. The accelerator pedal was in the centre of the pedalboard and the brake on the right.

Initially all cars, road or track, were right hand drive. The pre-1905 cars that take part in the annual VCC London-Brighton run are either centre or right-hand drive irrespective of country of origin, well over half are from outside the UK.

According to Wikipedia, it was Henry Ford who first put the steering wheel on the left - in the Model T - after which other manufacturers gradually followed. As Peter says, Lancia was one of the last, persisting with RHD into the 1950s.

Driver Seating Position

One of my favourite facts about LHD / RHD is that the U.S. Virgin Islands (a former Danish colony) is the only American jurisdiction that drives on the left. However, almost all the cars there are sourced from mainland America. Consequently, American tourists in LHD hire cars give the territory one of the world's highest road accident rates.