Why The American Sports Car?
This series intends to bring to light the interesting sports cars that American manufacturers proposed in their sales literature, in a failing attempt to interest American buyers. Nevertheless, these stillborn vehicles were of interesting design and their memory should be revived. Fortunately, our library has an extensive collection of sales literature which, besides illustrating the cars and their features, hawk a sporting motoring experience.
Biddle
These cars were built from 1919 to 1922 when the Biddle name was one of Philadelphia’s royalty. The company seems to have difficulty finding its way, because for some years no sports cars were illustrated, but other times they produced an exciting sports car with a Rochester Duesenberg engine, quite advanced for the time. It was said to have 100 hp. At one point in time the company built hundreds of cars per year or total of about 7500. This was with a series of 3 syndicates who jumped in to try to revive the company during its periodic financial crises.
The Biddle Ormond Speedway Special, named after Ormond Beach where many speed records were set, was “a car for speed-of racing lines— with half windshield-extremely low seats,-individual fenders steps-with wire wheel equipment.”
