The Shawmobile or Shaw Speedster was a small two-seat

cyclecar A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive motorized car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the c ...

buckboard A buckboard is a four-wheeled wagon of simple construction meant to be drawn by a horse or other large animal. A distinctly American utility vehicle, the buckboard has no springs between the body and the axles. The suspension is provided by th ...

-type vehicle built by the Shaw Manufacturing Company in

Galesburg, Kansas Galesburg is a city in Neosho County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 149. History Christopher and Elvina Boje gave land to build the town of Galesburg in 1871. Galesburg was laid out and platte ...

from 1920 to 1930

History

In the nineteenth century, Stanley W. Shaw first invented his own steam engine. At the dawn of the motoring age Stanley Shaw invented his own gas engine. By 1903 the Shaw Manufacturing Company of

advertised an engine kit for motorizing a bicycle in ''Popular Mechanics'' magazine for $90. The engine was 241 cc with dry cell battery ignition and a slip belt drive. Advertised cruising speed was , with a maximum speed of . By 1905 Shaw was mass-producing his engines to convert bicycles to motorcycles. By 1906 Shaw was manufacturing complete motorcycles. To further increase sales, Shaw began selling plans to build a car to use his engine. It was a very basic cyclecar, a buckboard with a motor. The Shawmobile was powered by a front-mounted Shaw gasoline engine with belt drive to the rear wheels. Wheels were of the wire bicycle type. By 1908 Shaw built and sold complete Shawmobiles. Advertisements claim and 90 mpg with the original Shaw engine. In 1915 Shaw also redesigned the engine kit featuring an improved H-20 engine with a magneto ignition and chain drive. Shaw redesigned the car in 1922 to look more conventional. The re-designed Shaw Speedster looked similar to the later

King Midget The King Midget was a micro car produced between 1946 and 1970 by the Midget Motors Corporation. The King Midget company started out by offering a kit to build a car, but soon added completely assembled cars and later only offered completed cars. ...

Series 1

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are ofte ...

. Most often the Shaw Speedster was sold as a kit. For those who didn't want to build it themselves, Shaw offered the car complete in a price range of $125 to $165, . The Shaw Speedster was produced until 1930. Buckboard and mail order type cars were also built during the same period by the A. O. Smith Company starting in 1915. The

Smith Flyer The Smith Flyer was an American automobile manufactured by the A.O. Smith, A.O. Smith Company in Milwaukee from 1915 until about 1919 when the manufacturing rights were sold to Briggs & Stratton and it was renamed the Briggs & Stratton Flyer. ...

became the Briggs & Stratton Flyer, and later the Red Bug. The

Lad's Car The Lad's Car was an American cyclecar automobile built between 1912 and 1914. History The Niagara Motor Car Corporation of Niagara Falls, New York, built a 4 horsepower air-cooled, single-seater juvenile car with belt drive. Marketed as ...

and the Motor Bob were similar cyclecars sold by mail order in the 1910s. After 1930, Shaw continued to offer and advertise the Speedster as a do-it-yourself car. Shaw Manufacturing became one of the biggest purchasers of

Briggs & Stratton Briggs & Stratton Corporation is an American manufacturer of small engines with headquarters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Engine production averages 10 million units per year as of April 2015. The company reports that it has 13 large faciliti ...

engines. From the mid-twenties, the Shaw factory was busiest producing the Shaw Du-All mowers and garden tractors. Stanley Shaw continued in this activity until his retirement in 1962 when he sold his firm to the manufacturer of the Brush Hog, a rotary mower.

External links

Farm Collector - Celebrating Shaw ManufacturingShaw Manufacturing Company History at Gas Engine MagazineShaw Speedster on YouTubeGalesburg Historical Society and Museum - Photos

References

{{Reflist Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Kansas Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1903 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1930 Cyclecars Microcars Brass Era vehicles Vintage vehicles 1900s cars 1910s cars 1920s cars Cars introduced in 1908 Cars discontinued in 1930

History

See also

External links

References