Gregory sports roadster

[finster]

stumbled across photos of this one-off car today, the porsche powered, front wheel drive Gregory sports roadster.
" Ben F Gregory was quite the engineer. According to The Golden Age of the American Racing Car by Griff Borgeson, Gregory built about 10 front-wheel-drive automobiles between 1918 and 1922. His interest in front-wheel drive paralleled that of Frenchman J.A. Gregoire, who invented the Tracta constant-velocity joint for the Citroen Traction Avant. About that time, Ben Gregory barnstormed local tracks and raced a car powered by a Hispano-Suiza airplane engine. These cars, according to a June 1956 article in Road & Track magazine, preceded the famous front-drive Miller racers by about a year. In 1921 he exhibited a touring car at the Kansas City Auto Show.
The Gregory sports car has a tube frame and a hand-formed body. The four-cylinder, air-cooled Porsche engine is mounted at the very front of the car, with the transaxle toward the center of the vehicle. The Road & Track article said the 1,925-pound car could hit 95 or 100 mph with the 70 horsepower engine. Gregory’s sports car featured center-point, vertical-pivot steering with large wheel bearings that housed Rzeppa constant-velocity joints, according to the magazine’s article. Gregory hoped to build 20 cars which would have sold for $5,000."

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"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[mikec4193]

That ole hot rod is sick...

What a mind he must have had to be able to create that ole roadster....thanks for sharing...

MikeC
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Dad bought his first Beetle on Dec 17, 1953.

[finster]

not only an engineer and barnstorming flyer it seems he was quite a 'character'
"Gregory was supplementing his income at that time as a limousine driver for one of Kansas City’s politically well connected houses of ill repute. The madam of the house had two large diamonds that she carried around in her hands for good luck much as a man might fiddle with dice. Eventually, Gregory managed to steal the diamonds and drop them into the limo’s gas tank until things cooled down. One day, the madam told Gregory to get the car ready to be delivered as she had sold it. It took Gregory several hours but he finally managed to fish the diamonds out of the gas tank. He delivered the car, then quit his job and moved to California for a time. There, he sold the diamonds and used the money to install a Hispano-Suiza engine in a racing car"

he also designed this rear engined, front wheel drive car in 47

_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...