BUSINESS

This car sold for $125!

May 19, 2010 14:58 IST

No, that's not a toy car or a collector's item. That's 'Flyer'.

Flyer was a small, simple, lightweight, two-seat vehicle with a wooden frame that doubled as the body and as the suspension.

A small gasoline engine was mounted on a fifth wheel, or motor wheel, to drive the Flyer. The wheelbase was 62 inches (1575 mm), the wheels were 20 inches (508 mm) in diameter, and the width was 30 inches (762 mm).

Briggs & Stratton marketed the Flyer nationwide. In 1925, they sold the rights to the Flyer to Automotive Electric Services Corporation, who continued to produce the car till the supply of engines ran out.

Briggs & Stratton was started in 1908 as an informal partnership between Stephen Foster Briggs and Harold M Stratton. The original intent of the founders was to produce automobiles.

In 1922 the company set a record in the automotive industry, selling the lowest-priced car ever, the Briggs & Stratton Flyer.

Virtually all Flyers were painted red and were known widely as the 'Red Bug'.

The Flyer is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most inexpensive car of all time. The book lists the 1922 Briggs & Stratton Flyer as selling from $125 to $150 (about Rs 5,985 to Rs 6,940).

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