Detailing the friction drive Sears for today's show. (UPDATE III: 192(?) Neracar, 1912 La Violette, Wickham,/JAP, Grice, Wood, GWK, HFG, Wherwell)

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Here's '16 cylinder Joyce' preparing the more humble two cylinder 1909 Sears for the Milwaukee Masterpiece Style & Speed Showcase. Thomas Edfors writes: 'This highwheeler has had a thirty year slumber in our ownership after spending forty years in a museum so much is needed to make it look good, and run, again. It is an unrestored car but with a brush repaint sometime in the '30's or '40's. The Sears has a friction drive transmission with twin chains to the rear wheels, not at all uncommon with the high wheel type motorcar, and often seen on cycle cars. This type of transmission was also used on other 'proper' motorcars such as the Lambert (John William Lambert devised this form of transmission), the Cartercar and the Metz here in the States. It would be interesting to see what other makes, used this type of transmission?' Contact Us (text & photos Thomas Edfors)

UPDATE III by Herb Tobin: "My 192(?) Neracar uses a friction drive transmission. According to their advertising the Neracar is not a motorcycle, but is, in fact, a two wheeled automobile."
UPDATE II: Edward Eyes from Ireland owns a 1912 La Violette touring also with friction drive.
UPDATE by Hugh Nutting: "When W. Durant first had control of GM and went on a spending spree, he bought the rights to it. It was one of his many hi-dollar goofs. I had a friend in Colorado that owned a CarterCar with about 1500 miles on the clock. It had been bought new by a mining family and never could drive in the mountains do to slippage. they parked it!"

Stuart Tallack: "As well as its well known use in cyclecars in the twenties, friction drive was used up to the fifties or later on Wickham trolleys, small locomotive units on both narrow gauge and standard gauge railways. As they were powered by a 1300cc JAP vee twin, I think they should be counted as honorary motor cars. The wheel attached to the countershaft had a periphery of compressed fibre or paper and it could be moved across the large flywheel on the engine. It worked well but is easily abused by careless drivers who can quickly put a flat on the edge of the friction wheel. Presumably friction drive cars also did not suffer fools gladly.

David Coco remembers he owned one of these: "...a beautiful car but a pretty useless driver, top speed 20 mile per hour or slightly more, and I lived on a brick street, so the solid tires were quite bump-bump-bump. The drive was through a cross shaft that had a more or less elongated oval shape disc, that lived in a more or less circular bowl, to drive the twin chain drive to the rear wheels. This primitive but effective device acted as a differential, letting one side drive as the other side released. A neat engineering solution to a drive problem."

John Robbins (UK): "Grice, Wood and Keiller's (GWK), made in the jam factory in Maidenhead, Berkshire, the HFG from Sheffield in God's only county (so they think anyway) of Yorkshire, and the Wherwell (I don't suppose it did) from a village of that name in Hampshire are three that come to mind."

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