Vanderbilt Cup Races

Sunday's post featured a film of the 1946 "Race of Racers" where Old 16 driven by Joe Tracy just beat out the 1911 "Breese of Paris" Racer driven by Bobby Breese. Walter McCarthy has provided this photo of Bobby Breese and his car.

Coachbuilt.com provides the following information on Bobby Breese and the Breese automobile:

Robert P. Breese (b.1887-d.1958) was a Harvard-educated American engineer who relocated to France where he served as Assistant Engineer of the Peugeot Freres Sigma Auto Company of Paris from 1909-1911. He then introduced his own limited-production Breese automobile which was a light speedster powered by four-cylinder Ballot and Fivet engines. Approximately 65 Breese roadsters were produced during 1911-1912, and one is known to exist today.

At the start of the war Breese joined the American Ambulance Corps after which he became attached to the US Aviation Service attaining the rank of Lieutenant. At the end of 1916 he returned to the United States and became the Manhattan distributor of the Philadelphia-built Biddle Automobile. His partner in Breese-Montant Motors was a French automobile importer named Louis Montant and the pair displayed a number of custom-bodied Biddles at the January 1917 New York Automobile Show.

It was later that year that Breese announced he intended to manufacture the Breese Speedster. Production on the second automobile to bear his name did not ensue, although two years later he introduced another Breese automobile to the automotive press.

Powered by a 20 hp Harley-Davidson engine, the Lilliputian Breese racecar was built using surplus aircraft parts and looked very much like the midget racers that would become popular after the Second World War. Unfortunately no backers were forthcoming and Breese spent the rest of his professional career as an engineer for Bendix Aviation and the General Bronze Corp.