A particularly legendary tricycle
It's one of those unfortunate stories that happen again and again. An enterprising young man, in this case Gary Davis, wants to build a car. As a basis for his developments, he comes into possession of a car that was built as a prototype in 1938 by Frank Kurtis for the millionaire Joel Thorne, a three-wheeler with a radically modern design.
In 1946, Davis founded the "Davis Motor Car Company" in Van Nuys (California) and began hiring engineers with the promise of paying them twice as much per month once production was up and running. They set up shop in a huge hall that had previously been used to build airplanes. The small start-up began to interest people, and in 1947 the first prototype was presented, retrospectively known as the Davis "Baby". It was a three-wheeled coupé with a four-stroke, four-cylinder engine, 47 hp, three-speed gearbox, rear-wheel drive and room for four people. Production would soon start with an initial 50 cars per day, rising to an output of 1000 cars per day.
In the post-war period, which was not necessarily rich in innovations, Gary Davis' pioneering work met with great interest, investors entrusted him with money and around 300 dealers signed franchise agreements. In fact, this car must have had an almost magical attraction if you compare it with many of the "novelties" of the late 1940s, which were actually just souped-up pre-war models.
The Automobil Revue also reported on the new release and even included the technical data in the AR catalog in 1949 . "The Davis three-wheeler was surprisingly described as very roadworthy by the American experts who tested it. Europe remains critical for the time being," wrote the Automobil Revue about the unusual car, in which all four passengers sit in the front. A 60 hp version weighing around 630 kg was claimed to be capable of 185 km/h, with fuel consumption of just 5 to 6 liters per 100 km.
Further prototypes of various designs were built, but no more than two dozen cars were produced before the first lawsuits were filed for unpaid wages and unfulfilled promises. Davis runs out of money far too early and has to justify himself in court, eventually being jailed for two years. Meanwhile, a group of franchisees try to start production in England with the help of Reliant, but this attempt also fails. At least that's what you can read on the Davis Register website .
What remained were a few Davis tricycle prototypes, including the first car called "Baby". And it is precisely this one (see picture above) that has now been put up for sale on Hemmings . The prototype with its aluminum body and Hercules four-cylinder engine was not cheap, according to the advertisement, but after all, only 13 were built. After all, "Baby" is said to be 98 percent complete and therefore a good basis for restoration. In any case, it is easy to imagine this revolutionary car in Pebble Beach or Amelia Island, but also in Schwetzingen or in the park of the Villa d'Este. However, anyone who has now acquired a taste for it is out of luck, because according to Hemmings, the car has already been sold.
