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Roy's Hoppin Hooptie: 1915

Roy Repp in his bucking Buick ("Maude, the Motor Mule") circa 1915 in New York. (Three more pics). View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

Roy Repp in his bucking Buick ("Maude, the Motor Mule") circa 1915 in New York. (Three more pics). View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

 

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Model 16 Roadster

The car Roy is driving looks like a 1909 - 1910 Buick Model 16 Roadster.

Cost of the Model 16 was $1,750 in 1909 with 497 produced; it rode on a 112 inch wheelbase; it had a three speed gearbox; and it weighed 2,620 pounds.

Full details on the Model 16 for 1910 are here.

There was also a "Maud the Mule" comic strip character. Was Roy influenced in his choice of names for his car by the comic strip? Info on Maud the Mule here.

Maude, the Motor Mule

More on Roy Repp in this 1916 item from the Van Nuys News:

An automobile that will run on its “hind legs,” spin about, buck and perform generally like the trick horse or mule of the circus has been the star feature of a number of race meets held in widely separated parts of the country, Popular Science Monthly states. The car is known as “Maude, the Motor Mule.”

Maude’s athletic and adventurous talents are due to a heavy weight hung over her tail and to individual brakes on each rear wheel. The weight is heavy enough to overbalance the car. It runs easily on a little track projecting over the axle, and is concealed beneath a housing. The driver controls the position of the weight by means of a lever and is thus able to make the car buck as he wants it to.

When the car is reared on two wheels one of the independent brakes may be applied and one of the wheels locked, causing the car to spin around on that wheel. The band usually plays a waltz for this and the driver, Roy Repp, manages to keep in time with the music.

Re: Roy Repp

Dave, he was supposed to be in the first 24 hour race in Columbus Ohio 7/3/1905 but here is what happened:

Four cars, one of which was manufactured in Columbus, were entered in the 24-hour race, although only three actually competed. Roy Repp, who was scheduled to driver a White Steamer, was hospitalized for surgery the day before the race was to begin, and the entry was withdrawn.

[Thanks Ron! Another piece in the puzzle. - Dave]

Roy Repp

Anyone know anything about Roy? A search through the online archives gives just two hits. He was from Australia, and his "trick automobile" was hit with crowds at racing events in Clinton, New Jersey, and Racine, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1915.

1933 and 1946 "descendants" of Roy's trick car

Here are photos and a description of two similar trick cars built by my grandfather and father. A third photo of the later car can be seen here.
Mike Grobbel

THUMP thump thump THUMP

I bet he really cranked the Victrola in that thing. And I do mean cranked.

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