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Unicorn-like 1917 Grant Roadster earns Best of Show
We’ve all heard the stories for years how some lucky duck would find a rare, mint-condition car of some sort tucked away in an old barn somewhere. A real needle in a haystack. Like finding a unicorn or bumping into sasquatch at a rock concert.
Stories like that have always carried about as much validity as the old traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter tales.
But the Best of Show winner in the 2017 Children’s Miracle Network Car, Truck and Bike Show Saturday at the Putnam County Fairgrounds can actually claim such an amazing back story.
Found in an Upland, Ind., barn in 1968, some 50 years after the original owner stored it there to go off and fight in World War I, a rare 1917 Grant Roadster captured Best in Show honors along with being honored as the Best Open Class entry for Ron and Deb Wellinger of Atlanta, Ind. (Complete results and more photos from the car show can be found on Page B1 today).
The Brewster green-colored Grant Roadster, built in Cleveland, is one of only three still known to exist, Wellinger said, and the other two are in the Grant Museum in Findlay, Ohio.
The original owner, Eduard Fritz of Michigan City, bought the car new in 1917 (one of 1,500 Grant made that year), the Wellingers explained, but soon thereafter duty called and he left for the War to End All Wars. But before departing, Fritz moved his prized vehicle, which sold for $1,055 new, to a barn in Upland and covered it with 10 or 15 tarps.
It was there in 1968 that Wellinger’s uncle found the vehicle. “It was 100 percent all there,” he said, noting that the tarps and wooden portions of the vehicle had rotted away. “Nobody even knew what it was,” he added.
But all the essentials were there, including an oil can positioned inside the hood because the driver was “supposed to stop every 30 miles to oil the lifters,” Wellinger noted, adding that it even carried a spare axle in the back because the roads were so bad back then.
The original owner died in 1923 and the car just stayed in the barn for 45 more years.
Wellinger’s uncle restored it and repainted the car in 1974. After that, the Grant sat in a museum at Kokomo for 18 years before Wellinger convinced his uncle to sell it to him four years ago.
The vehicle has no fuel pump, no oil pump and produces a whopping 21 horsepower via a straight six-cylinder engine and three-speed transmission driven by a leather fan belt. It has a top speed on 55 mph and a cruising speed of 50, Wellinger said.
There isn’t a bit of chrome on the roadster, everything is nickel plated. The wheels have wooden spokes beneath a metal covering.
“The metal was all galvanized steel,” Wellinger noted, “so none of it rusted.”
Sold as a three-passenger vehicle, today’s bigger people would be lucky to cram two into the lone seat.
“Women loved it,” Wellinger said.
His wife, Deb, noted that “it was considered a ladies’ car” because its electric start made it easier to operate.
Some 80 percent of the Grants were sold in Europe, the Wellingers said, noting that it was called the Whitney Grant overseas.
While the 1917 Grant won top honors, it was quite a successful show at the local fairgrounds overall.
“This was one of our best years based on number of entries, public attendance, and most importantly money raised,” show spokesman Larry Hall noted. “Our preliminary number right now is at least $11,500.”
The show also saw an increase in participants this year -- an estimated 175 -- and had entries from Bloomfield, Avon, Carmel, Lafayette, Terre Haute and even one car from Florida passing through when the owner found the car show listed on the Riley website.
Hall also expressed thank to Street Dreams Indy, Coyote Hunter Monster Truck Rides and Krambo’s Kustom Kolors for their support and participation in putting on the show.