Roads were much poorer, so clearance* was much more important.
One of my great grand fathers was a surveyor, and the neighbourhoods he worked on have become difficult for modern cars, because the curbs can be higher than low-slung doors, and driveway entrances are steep enough to bottom out.
* in my ski tourism area, even without reading the plates it's easy to tell local vehicles apart from the tourist ones, by clearance alone. Some of the farm equipment even has portal axles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_axle
(and even if they'd had good roads, I don't think they had the rubber technology: "radial" tyres weren't practical until after WWII)
Thanks for explaining. I had this silly idea that may be small wheels is a new tech and big wheels was something that just worked and everyone stuck with that back then.
What is it they have on these wheels if its not rubber and how does bigger wheel avoid the downside of not having rubber?
(I think modern tyre shapes at 1920s rubber prices might have cost a significant fraction of the car? Back then, they were not only small and narrow compared with today, but they were also much thinner — which is probably why Bibendum, the Michelin Man, is made of tubes)
The Allies miscalculated with the Maginot Line, because they hadn't realised the Axis might invent and produce synfuels.
The Axis miscalculated with cutting the UK off from its rubber-producing colonies, because they hadn't realised the Allies might invent and produce synthetic rubber.
