Look what we found…

This week’s good deal for an old car is another eBay find. Supposedly, a 1924 Automotive Electric Service Corporation, Red Bug Roadster. According to the listing this example was once owned by Lou Costello of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. I guess it knows who’s on first. This example is also a National ACAA Senior First Prize winner in 2012.

This car line had an interesting history. Manufacture started in 1916 by the A.O. Smith Company in Milwaukee, WI. The Standard Catalog of American Cars doesn’t say how many were made my A.O. Smith, but enough must have been made as the rights to the car were sold to Briggs & Stratton in 1919. Now here’s where you expect me to say “where they promptly strapped two machetes to the underside creating the world’s first riding lawn mower.” Sadly, that did not happen.

What did happen was interesting nonetheless, Briggs tried to do something with it for 5 years and eventually sold the rights to the Automotive Electric Service Corporation who promptly fitted the same motor used as a starter by Dodge Bros. cars of time.

The “Red Bug” was sold through outlets like Abercrombie & Fitch and F.A.O. Schwartz in New York City. In 1930 it looks like Paul du Pont and Indian Motorcycle played a roll in the downfall of the then named Automotive Standards, Inc when a deal to produce the cars in Springfield Massachusetts fell through.

At $17,500 it seems like a chance for a museum to own a weird piece of American automotive history.