Why the reverse speedo was used? Anybody know the history or reason?

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by MaSnaka

So according to Randall Thomas' research the speedo was designed to accommodate an anticlock speedometer cable and according to Soulman it just happened to work that way so Smith stuck with it because it was cheaper than using a reversing gearbox behind each speedo gauge. Which just brings up more questions than ever.

Do all Smith speedos run counter clockwise?

Why did the Cobra transmissions have a different cable rotation than the mainstream cars?

Is this unique to Cobras or are there other cars with reverse speedos?

My Classic Roadster has a Stewart Warner counter clockwise speedo so it must be catching on. Seems like we all go to extra trouble to either have one or not have one.

John

I'm with you. Didn't the first 289 cars have T-10s? I'm pretty sure the T-10 and the toploader have the same direction speedo cable drive. It sounds like they started out using a drive adaptor to correct the cable drive for the American tansmission to operate the speedo correctly in clockwise motion. For some reason (probably to save some money) they found it cheaper to retool the speedo for counter clockwise motion and drop the cable drive adaptor.