The original Briggs Flyer.

Gotta' give credit where credit is due, this is the original 1920 Briggs and Stratton Flyer, it was a motor car built between 1919 and 1924 by Briggs & Stratton.  It was designed to provide cheap, basic, fuel sipping (80 MPG!)  transportation for the working man.  Basically a motorized buckboard. It uses a traction wheel to propel the motorcar forward. They were red (being the official Briggs and Stratton color) but there was a white model with gold trim as well. They sold for about $125.00 during a time when the Model T went for about $360.00.

The original auto was British developed around 1910, and the American Rights were purchased by A.O.Smith Company of Milwaukee WI in 1915 or so, they built and marketed the "Smiths Flyer". Briggs and Stratton purchased the rights from A.O. Smith in 1919.  They produced the cars until 1924, and sold the rights to "Automotive Electric Services", they produced the cars until the existing supply of motors ran out. Then they designed an electric motor and sold it as a battery powered car.

Other companies marketed "Cycle-cars".  Throughout the 1915 to 1920's there were about 50 American Manufactures alone, among them  was a Comet, a Falcon, a Dudly Bug. and even a model by Sears-Allstate.

Here from the original advertisement:

"Power is derived from a Type D Briggs & Stratton Motor wheel attached at the rear of the flyer by means of a pivot pin. A lifting device is provided for the purpose of taking the motor wheel off the ground when starting or when coming to a standstill without stopping the engine. When ready to start, the motor wheel is lifted from the ground with the lifting lever and motor is started by a few turns of the wheel. Rider takes his place in the seat, throttles the motor down to a slow speed and lowers the lifting device, which brings the motor wheel in contact with the ground and the rider's off."

"Just imagine riding over 80 miles on one gallon of gasoline, at a rate of between 4 and 25 miles an hour, along some delightful boulevard or over a picturesque country road with a charming young lady for companion. Nowhere is greater pleasure and practicability to be had for such small investment."

I don't want to clog anyone else's bandwidth so I have pulled the links to these photos.  If you Google "briggs flyer" you will find lots of information on these unique bare bones motorcars.

I included it here because this to me is the very definition of American Ingenuity, a lot like our Flyers we enjoy today.

Someday I hope to have one of these.  I recently was able to obtain a copy of manufacturing plans, Hmmm, perhaps my next project.....