The LuLu cyclecar was produced by the Kearns Motor Truck Company n Beavertown, Snyder County, Pennsylvania from 1914 to 1915.[1]

LuLu Cyclecar
1914 Lulu Cyclecar from Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal
Overview
Manufacturer	Kearns Motor Truck Company
Also called	Kearns-Kar
Production	1914-1915
Assembly	Beavertown, Pennsylvania
Body and chassis
Class	Cyclecar
Body style	roadster
Powertrain
Engine	Farmers
Power output	12-hp
Transmission	3-speed selective
Dimensions
Wheelbase	96-inch
Width	44-inch
Chronology
Successor	Kearns Trio

History

The company was founded by Charles Maxwell Kearns in 1903.[2] Kearns was the son of a buggy maker and had a gift for invention but little more than a grade school education. He began by first mounting an engine on a buggy and progressed to more elaborate designs and heavy trucks.[2]

The LuLu automobile was manufactured at 25 vehicles per week in 1914. Billed as "more than a cyclecar", it had a four-cylinder monobloc engine and three-speed gearing. It sold for $450, (equivalent to $12,174 in 2021).[1]

Kearns Automobiles

The first logo for the "Kearns Kar Kompany" frames the words in the outline of the grille of a 1907 high wheeler runabout. The logo for the company boasted the car as being "Valveless, Gearless, and Clutchless". The engine for the first vehicles was an air-cooled 3-cylinder "porcupine head" two cycle engine. The vehicle's transmission was a friction drive, consisting of a flat spinning flywheel mounted on the engine which was set at right angles to a rubber lined steel drive wheel which slid from side to side on a drive shaft mounted in parallel to the rear axle. Sprockets on the end of the drive shaft relayed power to the rear wheels via a pair of chains, one per wheel..[2]

Cyclecar

The introduction of the LuLu cyclecar in 1914 marked a change in engineering for the vehicle. The two cycle engine was discarded in favor of the more reliable 4-stroke engine and a clutch and 3-speed transmission replaced the friction drive. World War I caused the company to cease production. However, after the Great War, the company resumed production but shifted to making trucks, including fire trucks.[1]

References