History 1918 "Hendy" built by Gus Henderson

I first saw this neat little home built car in Hop Up magazine from Sept 1951 where the article stated " The Hendy was built in 1918 by Gus Henderson. It is now owned by Louis Ergman,who still drives it around. It has a hardwood frame and a Henderson four cycle engine. You can't appreciate it until you stop to think that this car has only a 61 1/2" wheelbase, a 38" tread and stands only 37" high! The engine is air cooled,has a Boch "mag" and Winfield SR downdraft carburetor. With three speeds forward,speeds up to 65 mph can be attained. It also has a reverse. Whe sitting in it one's legs straddle the engine with the clutch on one side and the brake and accelerator on the other. The speedometer is on the right, outside of the car, and the starter is on the left side. It is dual chain driven and has chain steering. This car is so unusual tha Louis rents the car out for different publicity purposes." Attached are the two pages from the Hop Up article from '51 and a recently discovered photo of possibly Gus Henderson at the wheel in this Life Magazine archive photo. I believe I have also seen this car in some early talking films. Anyone else have any information on this neat piece of history ?

 

Kenneth Howard had one.

 

Is this the same car Ed Roth owned?

 

Hey, I thought i was on topic.
Is this the same car? I think this was sold at the official "Big Daddy" Ed Roth auction a while back. I think there was an article in TRJ.

 

There were a few midgets built with Henderson motorcycle engines in the early 30s.
Probably worth more today than some of the conventional powered cars. The engine alone most likely brings more than the car itself.
PM racer5c I think he might have some info on what you're after.

cheers.

 

How cool is that!

 

There is about a 4 page feature on the car when Von Dutch owned it. It sold at auction 3-4 years ago, then sold again privatley. The last I knew it was in a collection 30 minutes down the road from me. I had a Henderson 4 powered car that was built in the mid 1920's that was something like it. If you poke around Google you will find a sister car to the Von Dutch car with the original Harley V Twin from 1915. They built about 15 of them and they went on tour of the USA and Japan back in the day.

 

This is an unrestored original I've been told, the wheels and tires are new reproductions. Car is somewere in California. The original 15 had bodys and radiators that were scaled down reproductions of 1915 era GP cars, this one and the Von Dutch car look like FIAT GP cars. This one has the original Harley V-Twin for power.

 

Is showed up on my screen, but thanks for the repost for the rest of the HAMB family.

 

The red Henderson midget was just on ebay. The high bid was around $19,500.It did not meet the reserve.