Belfast revisited.

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About the Belfast return mystery: Kit Foster happens to have found solid background information: "I acquired a piece of Fergus literature at Hershey. It is not of the 1915 period, but was written and published in 1952 by Ferguson's son, Joe, Jr. (is there a possibility that the man in the photo is Joe Ferguson? check !) "..... In it he tells of the visionary car conceived in 1915 by his father, three chassis built in Ireland and one shown at Grand Central Palace in New York in January 1916. Although the press wrote glowingly ("In a time of engineering stagnation such as the present in Europe, it is possible to chronicle the appearance of one new car which is more utterly new than anything that has been seen for many years." - The Automobile; see also the engine and the chassis). Customers did not queue up to buy it, with one exception: a doctor from upstate New York who had one of the other chassis imported, fitted with a body by Holbrook of Hudson, NY, and drove it for 28 years. Following the doctor's death, Joe Ferguson, Sr., bought the car back, and had it exhibited at New York's International Motor Sports Show, March 29-April 3, 1952, also at Grand Central Palace. At this time, Joe, Jr. was running Fergus Motors, Inc., a sports car importer and dealer, in the city. The photo in question must record the return of that chassis, sans Holbrook body, to Ireland. "60 years" would make the date 1975. Where is it now, I wonder...? (all pics form Fergus brochure, collection Kit Foster)

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