Old Familiar Memories - Photo 79

Rumble Seat Ford

In 1916, the Society of Automobile Engineers defined a roadster as: "an open car seating two or three. It may have additional seats on running boards or in rear deck." Additional seating in the rear deck was known as a rumble seat or a dickey seat. The main seat for the driver and passenger was usually further back in the chassis that it would be in a touring car. A roadster would usually have a hooded dashboard. The earliest roadster automobiles had only basic bodies without doors, a windshield, or other weather protection. By the 1920s they were appointed similarly to touring cars, with doors, a windshield, a simple folding top, and side curtains. When roadsters of this era were equipped with rumble seats, the seats would fold into the body when not in use.