Christian manz
The American brand Scripps-Booth is certainly not the best known of the many existing American brands, but its ten-year history is quite remarkable. In its early days, the engineer James Scripps-Booth, family of the owner of the influential newspaper DetroitNews, he wanted to demonstrate his expertise in the automobile business so in vogue in those years of the first decade of the last century.
With the idea of creating something totally new, he ended up making an experimental vehicle halfway between the motorcycle and the car. Its structure was typical of the former: a front wheel and a rear wheel. However, the bodywork housed three seats: the driver in front, located in the center, and those of the passengers behind, a scheme that required mounting small double auxiliary wheels on the sides that were folded and hidden once a certain speed was reached. It was these lateral supports that made it similar to the latter.
In reality it was one of the first “monorails”, one of the first cars with the wheels in a rhomboid arrangement - one in front, one behind and two, in this case double, on each side. It was also the first vehicle with an eight-cylinder V-engine, three years ahead of the first Cadillac with such a powerplant.
It was finished in 1912 although it was practically ungovernable, especially at low speed; but it attracted a lot of attention because of its unusual concept. On the outside, its long hood was well differentiated, with the only front wheel protruding from the whole of the vehicle. Instead of a radiator, it had a hundred and fifty meters of thin copper tube covering the sides, in order to guarantee adequate cooling for the V8 developed by James Scripps-Booth himself.
After starting with compressed air, the two fully covered drive chains transmitted power of up to 45 hp to the single rear wheel, via a four-speed gearbox. The set could reach 120 km / h with the side wheels raised, a record for that time.
The passenger and driver seats were located far back in the vehicle, above the small auxiliary supports that supported the weight at stops. It had a large steering wheel - which also served to give it the title of automobile rather than motorcycle - but the heavy front wheel was not at all easy to turn.
According to the founder of the brand, the development of this vehicle cost more than 25.000 dollars; and, as James could not convince any client, everything was in a single copy. Who would have dared to drive it after paying a pretty high price for it?
boom cyclecar
Meanwhile, something had happened in the U.S. In 1913 a new category of automobile had unexpectedly been born, the cyclecar, that it had nothing to do with the authentic and heavy machine that had aroused so much admiration in those years. The idea came from the Old Continent and took root for some years in America, without ever really understanding the concept of vehicles hybrid motorcycle and car.
Several companies were born from scratch that created light vehicles based on European ideas but adapting them to national desires. They stood out for their extreme simplicity, their low price and their curious physiognomy, often with tandem seats - that is, one behind the other - to save space.
In a few months, thirty companies dedicated to the production of cycle cars emerged and about a hundred more announced that they were working on a vehicle with similar characteristics, waiting for investors. El tree The results and success obtained were very great, although the results and success were quite small.
Also James Scripps-Booth chose to create a cyclecar. He did like the others, using a frame of slats and wooden planks, placing a bench for two people in tandem. At the bottom, two axles without suspension and four thin bicycle wheels. He bought an air-cooled Spacke-brand V-twin engine from the market and, to give a special touch to such a simple car, he fitted a torpedo-shaped bonnet, with a nose at the front. It was him Rocket or rocket.
Inspired by the French Bédélia, the prototype still mounted the driver's seat behind that of the passenger, although in production models this unique concept would be changed. The drivetrain featured the typical cyclecar drive belt, a two-speed gearbox, and drum brakes on the rear wheels only. He teamed up with John Batterman to create the Scripps-Booth Cyclecar Company, offering their model in a two-seater version with a van-style rear end.
They were able to sell about 400 units taking advantage of the boom in the cyclecar in the New World between 1913 and 1915, priced slightly below the Ford T.
