Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The Apperson Jack Rabbit Racer Built for the 1906 American Elimination Trial
Ronald Sieber challenged you to solve this Mystery Foto of a racer built specifically for a Vanderbilt Cup Race.
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
- Identify the racer including year, manufacturer, and nickname
1906 90 Apperson Jack Rabbit Racer made by the Apperson Brothers Automobile Company
- Identify the driver and mechanician in the Mystery Foto.
The driver was George Robertson and the mechanician was Arthur Warren.
- This racer was built for which Vanderbilt Cup Race?
1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race after competing in the 1906 American Elimination Trial
- What happened to the racer? Update: Hint-This racer never made it to the starting line.
Three days before the 1906 American Elimination Trial to select the five American racers for the Vanderbilt Cup Race, Robertson's Apperson crashed into a telegraph pole. Amazingly, Robertson suffered only minor injuries while Warren broke both wrists.
Congrats and kudos to Dick Gorman, Les Stohr, Art Kleiner (See Kleiner's Korner), David Grappolo (see Grappolo's Gems), Tim Ivers and Ariejan Bos for solving the Apperson Mystery Foto.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Apperson had prepared a 1906 campaign to sell 15 Apperson Jack Rabbits which were "a duplicate of our Vanderbilt Racing Car." The 1907 price was $5,000 equivalent to $131,000 today.
The guaranteed speed was "75 miles per hour." The Automobile Magazine 1907 courtesy of Art Kleiner.
Bulb Horn, April 1945
George Robertson recalled the 1906 accident in a 1945 issue of Bulb Horn.
The Apperson accident as captured by Roslyn photographer William Pickering
Kleiner's Korner (Submitted by Art Kleiner)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 21, 1906
After the accident, Apperson ran this ad. In 1907, Apperson built a variation on the 1906 Jack Rabbit and called it the "Big Dick."
A Name You'll Never Forget
Most Powerful Brass Era Car, pre-1916
1907-1908 Apperson Big Dick, 96hp
For those with $15,000 to spend, Apperson would put their race engine in a 50hp Jackrabbit runabout to create the Big Dick. A 96hp racing runabout, the Big Dick actually had the highest advertised horsepower in an American automobile through 1914. It had open exhaust and a 6 1/4-inch bore and 5 1/2-inch stroke, for 675-cu.in. Amazingly, the company sold 15 of them, and that in the face of competition from Locomobile's own $15,000 short stroke 990.1-cu.in., 90hp Cup Racer (the factory claimed 120hp for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup car upon which it was based).
Grappolo's Gems (Submitted by David Grappolo)
Corrected: Exhaust
Corrected: Inlet
Comments
I will have to guess at this one. Perhaps it’s the 50 hp 1905 Haynes driven by Frank Nutt in the American Elimination Trial but deemed not worthy after finishing 4th, which should have put them in the race.
Perhaps this is the car as noted on the Old Motor site. http://theoldmotor.com/?p=28549 if not…...I will sit back and learn a bit as I can not find any info pertaining to the mechanician nor the nickname for the racer.
To me it looks like the Alco Black Beast,
Howard Kroplick owns now
Mystery Foto #2….The racer in the photo is a 1906 Apperson Jack Rabbit.
George Robertson was the driver and Arthur Warren the mechanician.
It was built for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup
but was destroyed in a crash while racing in the American Elimination Trial.
P.S. Most of the answers I use for the Mystery Foto Questions are found with Internet research BUT… I actually remembered the nickname (Jack Rabbit) of the Apperson probably giving a strong indication of my age.
P.S.S. And for only $5000 you could buy replica of the racer for yourself!!!
Apperson car, crashed in practice for the 1906 American Elimination trials. George Robertson and mechanic Arthur Warren. Other cars that did not start that year were Maxwell and BLM. Entries withdrawn for that year were Stanley and Wayne.
Identify the racer including year, manufacturer, and nickname
1906 90hp Apperson (Apperson Motor Car Company owned by Edgar and Elmer Apperson). Not sure of the nickname for this, but a 1909 Apperson was called the Jackrabbit.
Identify the driver and mechanician in the Mystery Foto.
George Robertson and Arthur Warren.
In which Vanderbilt Cup Race was this racer built for? What happened to the racer? Update: Hint-This racer never made it to the starting line.
1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race, however was first entered in the American Trial.
Racer crashed on a practice run prior to the trial. Robertson and Warren both hospitalized.
Correction - I believe the Jackrabbit was also used in 1907 as shown in an ad sent to Howard.
From David Grappolo:
- Identify the racer including year, manufacturer, and nickname
1906 90 HP Apperson racer
Nickname: “Big Dick”
- Identify the driver and mechanician in the Mystery Foto
Driver: George Robertson (which also took part in the 1905 Vanderbilt Elimination Trials on 60 HP Christie)
Mechanic: Warren
- In which Vanderbilt Cup Race was this racer built for?
1906 Vanderbilt Cup
- What happened to the racer?
Accident during practice
An Apperson car which was trying to be entered for the 1906 Cup race, but crashed
during qualifying on Old Westbury Road, Roslyn. The driver was George Robertson and the
mechanician was Arthur Warren. The crash destroyed the vehicle, which had a nickname, “The Jackrabbit”.
We see George Robertson and mechanician Warren in a 90 HP Apperson, built for the Elimination Trials for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup. The car never made it to the starting line, because it had a serious accident by hitting a telegraph pole during practice. The car was completely bent around the pole, but miraculously both driver and mechanician were not seriously hurt.
For 1907 from this racer a high speed runabout was developed, the ‘Jack Rabbit’. This car was according to the description in the ‘Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal’ a racing car of medium power and light weight, constructed in many aspects along the lines of the 1906 racer. The car had a 50 hp motor and was geared to 75 miles an hour at 1200 rpm. It must have been a thrill to drive it at that speed on the American country roads ...
The two photos of the engine submitted by David Grappolo, listed as intake and exhaust, I think it should be reverse.