"charles" wrote in message
...
my father had a Rootes car (Sceptre?). It had a bench front seat, so
the handbrake had to fit between the driver's seat and the door.


No "had to. about it. You're forgetting under dash "umbrella. style
handbrakes that you pulled (and foot operated parking brakes although I'm
not sure these were ever popular in the UK).

I remember the 'umbrella' handbrake - can't remember which car it was in,

Most 1950s/1960s cars with bench seats, and those which had two seats but
where a bench was an option. My dad's Ford Corsair (two seats but bench was
an option on some models). My mum's two Renault 6s (two seats but they had
no space between them). My dad's Citroen GS (space was occupied by
radio/cassette - a vertical cassette slot gets a lot of day-to-day crap in
it!).

The Citroen was a spade handle with a release button inside - and it was
designed for the LHD market where it would be operated by the index finger,
so on a RHD car (which did not have the control on the other side) you had
to use your little finger or else turn our hand over so it was palm upwards.
It was unusual in that it acted on the front rather than rear brakes - and
those brakes were close to the gearbox, a lot further "inboard" than disc
brakes are usually, just behind the wheels. All extra labour time when a
brake disc needs changing - I *think* they had to remove the drive shaft to
remove/replace it...

Usually the umbrella handle was rotated 90 degrees to release the ratchet,
and then pulled up like that and rotated back to its rest position to lock
onto the ratchet. Some may instead have had a ratchet release button. I
liked the under-the-dashboard on mum's R6. And the hockey-stick gear lever
was lovely and smooth (not notchy) and had a very big "throw" between the
1st/2nd, 3rd/4th and R planes of the gear positions - about +/- 45 degrees
wrt to the 3/4 plane, so no danger of hitting first instead of third etc. It
was the first car I drove that actually had lateral springs to bias the gear
lever into the 3/4 plane, rather than being equally at home in 1/2 or 3/4 -
that also helped in not confusing the gears. I got very used to a 4th to 2nd
change when accelerating out of corners: apply a bit of anti-clockwise
pressure, push the lever half way in (into neutral) and pull it straight
back out again.