Labor Day Special: Walter Grossman's speedway concoction

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This here is a machine we hadn’t come across before and there’s no doubt it's a racer. What kind of racing might it have done? We know! This was a speedway special photographed circa 1914 in the United States.

There is, in fact, a lot known about it, so let us for now quote directly from the source: “This young driver, sitting in his unnumbered race car, is believed to be Walter Grossman of Los Angeles. He and thirteen other racers had brought their ‘cycle cars’, smaller and less powerful than regular race cars, to the Tacoma Speedway for special Labor Day competition in 1914.”

Co-incidentally, on that very day in 1914, Henry Ford happened to be in a generous mood and more than doubled the wages of his factory workers to $5 a day, but let’s not get carried away as our quote goes on: “Mr. Grossman was also photographed in a ‘Red Devil’ car of his own design and construction, which was far different from the car he is pictured in above. Although the boys were able to get in practice and speed trial times, rains on the actual day of competition cancelled the race. Mr. Grossman, part of a large contingent from Southern California, returned to his home after a second postponement.”

Hmmm… That makes us rather curious about Grossman’s Red Devil, too, of which we have found an excellent picture. And how about this machine—hardly the product of a factory, we would think. What is that vee-twin engine on the side and how exactly was its chassis constructed? It's certainly an interesting vehicle.

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: Marvin D. Boland Collection
 

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