BOSS TODD IS FUCKIN’ BACK, BITCHES!
THE BRIGGS & STRATTON FLYER
Model Year: 1920
Total units produced: Unknown, but at least 60,000 at minimum
Vehicle type: Five-wheeled, two-seater, rear-engine roofless coupe
Engine: gasoline, single cylinder 2-stroke, 200 cc, 2 hp
Drivetrain: RWD
Transmission: direct-driven rear fifth wheel
Gross weight: unknown, but probably <250 lbs total
0-60 time: not on your life
Top speed: 25 mph
Vehicle cost: $125 (1920 pricing)
What makes this car interesting?
You want simple? You want cheap? You want reliable? Lots of cars over the years probably spring to mind. The K-Car. The VW Beetle. The Trabant. All of them wildly popular, despite their numerous flaws, especially due to their simplicity and low cost to maintain and repair. I’m here to tell you today that this vehicle is going to blow every single one out of the water when it comes to the simplicity of its design.
The 1920 Briggs & Stratton Flyer was the Diogenes of automobiles. It had basically none of the features that the modern customer would expect to see. No lights, dashboard, mirrors, or even things like doors, suspension, brakes, or pedals. At $125, the Flyer was essentially a toy that ended up becoming wildly popular in its short run of existence despite the fact that it was as bare-bones a vehicle as one could possibly buy a century ago.
The Flyer began its life produced by the A. O. Smith Company, and their single-horsepower engine was standard equipment on every model they produced between 1915 and 1919. When Briggs & Stratton bought the manufacturing rights in 1920, they switched to their own engine – a two-horsepower model. In both instances, the engine was connected directly to a fifth wheel in the back which provided propulsion; with the wheel spinning directly with the motor, and due to the car’s extremely low weight, there was no need for a transmission to change gears. The fifth wheel was raised and lowered on a lever for starting and stopping purposes. Even with the dubious quality of many roads in America during the early part of the 20th century, the Flyer didn’t bother with suspension, as the wooden planks connecting the front and rear wheels could flex enough to provide travel for both axles.
Except that’s not what happened at all. At least, not quite yet – not really until the legendary Ford Model T cornered the market a few years later. As the Flyer was so incredibly rudimentary, it ended up becoming just another toy of the rich & famous to putter about in – even though many had other vehicles with a wide variety of comfort and safety options not found in the Flyer.
Briggs & Stratton ultimately got out of the automotive market, but they’re still around today over a century later- their small engines continue to be found in lawnmowers across the continent, and as the parent company of Evinrude, Johnson Outboards, and many other small-engine ventures, their technology continues to make an impact on the world today.
What makes this car stupid?
Well, if you crash, you’re fucked. There’s zero margin of error in this thing. While this is obviously completely unsatisfactory for modern standards, even in its era, it would’ve been a death trap.
Also, you’ve got a 200 cc engine. Where’s the gas tank for this shit? Forget what your gas mileage is – worry simply about being able to complete your round trip to a few blocks away. Slapping a bigger external tank on this thing would also be a self-defeating purpose.
CAN YOU GET PUSSY IN THIS CAR?
Two seats side by side… no center console… NOTHIN’ STOPPIN’ A LITTLE SLOPPY TOPPY WHILE CRUISIN’ IN THE JALOPY NOW, DON’TCHA THINK?
The classic power to weight problem. Any dipshit weekend mechanic wants to start off by saying that you gotta take GM’s small-block LS and swap it into whatever the fuck you want. A Camaro. A Saturn. A Beetle. A fucking toaster. Who gives a fuck. But that’s why all those guys are fuckin’ amateurs. DON’T LISTEN TO THE HATERS.
I tell you what you’re gonna fuckin’ do. You’re gonna go electric on this bitch.
I’m dead serious. Ferdinand Porsche had his own design for a direct-drive wheel back in the early 1900s. But his was electric, not gas. Rigged up to some shit heavy old-school lead-acid batteries. So take that idea and just rig your shit up to modern lithium instead. You wanna solve the power to weight equation? There you fuckin’ go.
BOSS TODD out, bitches. See you in hell.
[The Camaro burns out again, with “Breakin’ The Law” blaring once more.]
***
Information for this article taken from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Banner image by The Maestro.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMSiqo3g7k&ab_channel=BorisMalagurski
Boss Todd in a Yugo?
That’s not a car, it’s a go- cart. I like it!
Why wasn’t it fueled by onions?
Because those onions were needed for tying to their belts, duh.
Onions were expensive then, because people were wearing them on their belts, which was a style at the time. Why, a single onion would cost you three bees!
This was a Diogenes callback.
Don’t try to gloss over your fashion ignorance, please.
[looks at her son’s Radio Flyer]
[think about how dangerous it would be to have an engine on that thing]
[adds this article to the WebNanny blocked list]
– Olivia Manning
Right, her “son.”
Poor boy
If you’re talking cheap and reliable cars, the conversation starts and ends with the Adobe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F02P2JO7yfc
Robert Kraft can’t resist the opportunity for a happy ending.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/sport/tom-brady-robert-kraft-intl-spt/index.html
Boss Todd has me wanting to run through a wall, but unfortunately I used this “car” to do it and now all I’ve got is a totaled kid’s toy and an unharmed brick wall.
Both AO Smith and Briggs and Stratton were still big companies in MLK when I was a kid. A lot of people we knew worked there. In HS automotive industrial arts which I took a ton of for the easy credit hours, your sophomore year you rebuildt a Briggs and Stratton lawn mower motor not much different from the “power plant” on this baby. Thanks Maestro I really enjoy these.
When i registered my golf cart, i learned it is classified like an off-road vehicle and, in my state, the law doesn’t prohibit me from improving the motor but I am not allowed to take it on roadways with a post speed limit above 35 MPH (i think).
I believe innovations is stifled because we ‘must’ produce modern ‘real’ cars. We subsidize GM to roll them out in assembly production and, consequently, establish an unnecessary high barrier to market entry. I’d like to see more “under 35mph” vehicles brought to market that, frankly, you accept the inherent risks with (like a motorcycle) and may end up being a Just Right solution to many cars vs bikes/pedestrian design challenges. And will bring innovation to the consumer in the motorized vehicle market.
You would find Rome interesting. SMART cars are muscle vehicles there. There are all sorts of covered mopeds, 2 stroke mini cars and such there. In many parts of the city you can’t drive much faster than 35 because of the traffic density. And parking is just nuts so the advantages of small vehicles are many.
I live in Phoenix. Car culture. Flat grid layout. But in my immediate area, i can get around a few mile range on my cart. It’s a little unique here where subdivisions off freeways is the way they’re doing the newer cities but, especially cities with hills and/or winding road and other interruptions (bridges; mountains; bogs; the ocean) — keeping traffic under 35mph in your area may actually not be a challenge to accomplish.
It’s more about the motor vehicle monopoly and how Mr Fucking Greatest Mind on Earth Who Owes Me A $30K Electric Car is a clown on Twitter while his electric truck is cancelled and his economic transportation product has become a status symbol. And me, the consumer, wants to know what genius got rid of Saturn? Where’s our Tata?
No one is breaking us consumers out of this monopoly unless we can introduce new market competitors. I want a custom car that is LESS than a stock Corolla — including having no heaters or cupholders. I want a basic transportation device that isnt a scooter or bike with a small lawnmower engine. And it’s a market that isn’t offered because everything practical has to be designed for a high impact collision at 90mph — so consumers are forced to move up in vehicle. I want to be over 6′ and grabbing coffee two miles down the road in traffic that I’m 100x more concerned about getting a fender bump or some bike courier zooming by on the line than I an eightcar pile up.
Like that motorcycle last week — any pretty rich guys should be able to put a small production line in place to test these vehicles in the market. It’s a much more palatable investment — lowering the barrier to entry. Show me what that are then we’ll figure out the details on the rules.
I mean,I appreciate the innovation of Ford to bring me my pickup. Its been good — better than expected. But their tech is so shitty that i am already planning to get a different brand next time because some of their shit is unpalatable. So let’s say I’m 6’2″ and don’t need the bed for a short commute? I should be able to hop in the Flyer and get coffee.
That’s all I’m really trying to say. And I’m 5’10”.
Saturn is out of production because Saturn cars sucked. And I should know, because I had one for about 180K miles. By that point it was literally falling apart, I mean to the point that the frame was sticking through the fabric in the front seats.
Late model Saturns sucked because GM had essentially shuttered their R&D department within the division. The last Saturns were mostly just rebadged Opels and Vauxhalls… the original SL1 was designed entirely in-house, with the original Z-body platform aand a 1.9L engine that was getting 40 MPG in the mid-’90s when coupled with a 5-speed stick. That’s absolutely wild. They produced ten years of Z-bodies until the ION came around in 2002.
Saturn had great ideas and a cool business operating model, but it was just too cost-inefficient and with the ’08 recession and re-emergence of Japanese vehicles after their own recession in the early ’90s, it’s no wonder that GM wanted to trim the fat.
The first car I owned was a ’94 Saturn that I bought used in ’98. Within five years I had replaced the alternator three times, and the radio had stopped working. When I bought my new car, I didn’t even have a chance to try selling the Saturn before it conked out again, got towed, and I ended up just letting the impound lot salvage it for the tow/storage fees because it was so worthless.
Sounds like you bought my car. Dumbass.
My first car was a 1974 Mercury Comet that I paid $1200 for in 1979. It was a complete shitmobile. I blew two tires in ten minutes once because it was so badly out of alignment. If you moved the floor mats, you could see the road- total rustbucket. I was driving down the highway and the fan belt assembly disassembled and shot through the radiator. When I traded it in for a brand new 1980 Chevette, the engine blew up in a spectacular cloud of blue smoke in the parking lot of the dealership. They gave me 500 bucks trade in because they felt sorry for me!
You’ll need someone who’s done the real research, but AFAIK the smaller, basic means-of-transportation cars (ex: Honda Fit) just don’t sell as well as SUVs, CUVs, or pickup trucks here in the US. Tax gas to $10/gal and that’ll bring out the SmartCars.
Also, remember the Yugo? $4000 in 1980’s money for a brand new car? It was garbage. “A gas cap for your Yugo? Yeah, sounds like a fair trade.”
Agreed. Gas is over 9 bucks a gallon over here. So you see more small vehicles.
Listen, if you didn’t break down into tears of joy over the prospect of BUYING A LITTLE FREEDOM then you should be ashamed to call yourself an American.
Gas/energy prices are going to do what they’re going to do. I don’t want to make my truck cost-ineffective; I want to just make local/slow (under 35mph) driving vehicles effective. Old people communities allow golf carts. I want the But The Driver Is Able to See version of that. I want a flyer and I want all kinds of people competing to make me the best one because they can survive without having to produce millions of vehicle for purchase.
I wonder if one of the problems is that many cars are designed with commutes in mind – the expectation that drivers are going to be spending at least an hour in their car every weekday. So cars will include lots of features to make that more palatable. With work-from-home surging, maybe those features won’t seem so essential anymore.
The problem is the fat cats down at Big Car flexing their monopoly. It’s not that cars are designed for commutes; it’s that I cannot design/sell a Flyer because, for car design, we must offer a vehicle that can survive a commute. That shouldn’t be the case. Let some guy in town sell 5,000 little Flyers. That could never happen today GOVERNMENT RED TAPE!
I hear ya. A second family car, if you’re smart, should be a simple short range commuter. But in the US it’s a friggin SUV half of the time. Save the bigger vehicle for long trips or full loads.
Agreed, I would like to see more Tatas.
I give this 3 out of 5 Hamilton’s for being dangerous and 4 of out 5 May’s for being slow
Dude, all I can think about is the driver being impaled by the steering column/pole in a collision…
Secondary thought: does Briggs and Stratton make small engines for Sybians?
Gas powered Sybian?
/Lucy Lawless just hammering a plate of beans