Saw this on Shorpy today and thought it fit in well here. February 2, 1939. "Builds own Jalopy. Thirty dollars was all it cost Robert Preston, 16-year-old high school senior, to build this midget automobile. Weighing approximately 250 pounds, the 'jalopy' is powered with a washing machine motor of ¾ horsepower and has a maximum speed of 20 miles an hour. His license tags for this year will cost 32 cents."
I would have thought that you could have purchased a model A for about that price then and what kind of washing machine motor takes fuel if it is electric the extension cord would have to be long to go 20 mph sounds like b.S to me
The old Maytags back then had gasoline engines with foot pedal starters,like a scooter. There were a lot of rural areas in the US back before 1940 that didn't have electricity,so a electric washing machine wouldn't have sold. I have a friend that has two of these things that are restored. These are the old wringer style round tup washing machines that were on wheels.
Steve Cook you must be fairly young. Maytags were gas powered when they frist came out. Had one on a go-kart myselfe when I was a kid. The kick starter was cool. Only time i heard my Granma cuss was on Monday when she went to start the washer....
Sure he could have bought a late T or early A for the same money, but then he wouldn't have the fun of building it himself. I've seen some of those motors, they look like a baby motorcycle engine.
Our once a year Long Beach Model T Club swap meet here in Long Beach every summer usually has a display of hit and miss engines along side the car show. They're pretty cool. One of the guys in that club grinds corn and sells little bags of corn meal for a buck, lol.
Hey, That would be my club, the "Western Anitque Power Associates" The "motor" on the cart look's to be a Maytag model 92 long base. At a 16 to 1 oil to fuel ratio, that must have been quite a "crop duster" $16.00 in 1939, the tail end of " Rosevelt's Great Depression", was a big chunk of change! 25% of the public was still lookin for work! Swankey Devils C.C. "Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Compassion!"
Actually the Great Depression started in 1929, during the Republican Hoover Administration. Roosevelt took office in 1933. Most people who don't get their history from Rush Limbaugh know this. http://mediamatters.org/research/200812030014 Here's a Maytag Model 92 in action! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wbBR2Y9PQ0U&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wbBR2Y9PQ0U&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
maytag also made 2 cyl models called maytag twin, they also made a maytag racer, look at my picture album and i have one beside my truck.
Hey, The Maytag 2 cylinder models, Model 72, came out in 1937. Besides built to run washing machines, some were sold to run battery chargers and as 110 volt generators. Maytag built these up into 1952, for areas of the country that still had no electrical power. Maytag also built automobiles for a few years, known as the Matyag-Maxon, the engine of their vehicles was designed by the Duesenberg Brothers. Swankey Devils C.C. "Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Compassion!"
old hit or miss engines,love those things!! if anyone on here comes to the big ag expo in Moultrie in november, they always have a bunch of those, guy has one running making ice cream every year,
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