A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins is Road & Track's engineering nerd and Porsche apologist. He joined the staff in 2016 and no one has figured out a way to fire him since. He street-parks a Porsche Boxster in Brooklyn, New York, much to the horror of everyone who sees the car, not least the author himself. He also insists he's not a convertible person, despite owning three.
Back in the Fifties, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing sported a unique steering wheel with a folding rim that aided ingress and egress over the tall door sills. A Ford Transit does not have the same entry/exit problems, but the Blue Oval has taken this folding-rim concept and adapted it for a very different purpose. Fold in the wheel on the new Transit Custom, and you have a space to put your laptop or a specially sized lunch tray.
After all, there are 70 years between the Gullwing and this Transit—how did no one see a Gullwing wheel folded up and not imagine a tray to be placed on it?According to a Sunday Times story published last year, the wheel was created by D-Ford, a unit of the company primarily comprised of designers and engineers without standard automotive industry backgrounds. The team works with customers to improve the day-to-day livability of Ford's cars.
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