You Need This: Prove you like to live dangerously, buy this cyclecar

If the kind of car someone buy says a lot about them, what would this pre-war cycle car say about its owner?

Probably that the person prefers to commute as dangerously as possible, they are simply insane or, maybe, a mixture of both.

Regardless, what you are looking at is an IMP Cyclecar from 1914. The IMP was a product of the W. H. McIntyre Company and was produced during the cyclecar craze of the early 1900s.

Powered by a Rochester Motor Company V-Twin engine, this IMP makes use of a variable friction transmission, leaf springs front and rear and two belt drives–one on each side of the cyclecar–to power the rear wheels.

Comments

dculberson MegaDork
12/13/24 12:14 p.m.

Man, that thing just has buckets of style. I am not so sure about the exposed belt and safety, but it sure looks damn cool.

TRoglodyte UltraDork
12/13/24 12:33 p.m.

I want to know who did the brick work behind it, WOW!

DavyZ Reader
12/13/24 1:12 p.m.

Ditto on the brickwork: since when do they do columns like that in brick?? Anyway, the car is amazing and who doesn't want an exposed drive belt next to their bodies spinning wildly at speed? I like the look of the car but it needs an LS.

stuart in mn MegaDork
12/13/24 3:23 p.m.

In reply to Colin Wood :

I've always loved the story behind the famous Bloody Mary cycle car: "It was, as Bolster once wrote, built by two schoolboys in 1929 '…with the object of driving around a field as dangerously as possible'.

cholmes New Reader
12/13/24 3:47 p.m.

That variable friction drive is just like the one in my snowblower, which is prone to slipping in high gear when I unleash the full fury of 8 HP on it.