A mystery midget motor from America

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One thing we can promise you for the new year is that we will have plenty more puzzle pictures coming to keep you guys going here. Take this one for example. What on earth is it? The only thing we can say with certainty is that this little four-wheeled creature is equipped with an American licence plate dated 1919.

That doesn’t get us far, though. With its small wheels, the only thing we could find that came close to it was the ‘Baby Car’ designed and built by Gus Petzel of Alameda, California, which was dubbed ‘The smallest car in the world’ when driven by its creator from San Francisco to New York in 1925 (picture 2). The wheels and wheelbase, layout and design, chain-drive and even the small and low-placed headlights seem the same on both contraptions. However, Petzel’s car was equipped with an air-cooled four-cylinder engine with four short pipes poking through the side bonnet, while this one has just two of those, merging into one end pipe.

Could it be an earlier incarnation of Petzel’s special? The driver does seem to be dressed for a serious journey, too. It’s a real pity the picture isn’t quite so detailed as there appears to be a name written on the scuttle, just in front of that, umm... well, what do you call that thing pointing up in the air? Who's going to be the first person to point us in the right direction as we start another year full of mystery and intrigue?

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: source unknown
 

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