Gadabout
Illustration — A 1914 Gadabout car with wickerwork body The Gadabout was an American automobile from 1914 until 1916. A four-cylinder self-declared cyclecar, it had a body woven from so-called "waterproof reeds" (wicker) on a wooden frame. It has been described as "looking like a mobile wastepaper basket".
Gadabout
- Founded
- 1914
- Headquarters
- Detroit
- Dissolved
- 1916
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — A 1914 Gadabout car with wickerwork body The Gadabout was an American automobile from 1914 until 1916. A four-cylinder self-declared cyclecar, it had a body woven from so-called "waterproof reeds" (wicker) on a wooden frame. It has been described as "looking like a mobile wastepaper basket".
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Gadabout. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q5516278
In this article
History
History
First announced in August 1913, the car was manufactured by the Gadabout Motor Corporation. The company leased a building in Newark, New Jersey, on the southwest corner of Badger Avenue and Runyon Street, in the summer of 1914. The cars were marketed as Gadabouts. Walter Greunberg was the designer and Philip Heseltine the marketer. In 1915, the company moved to Detroit, Michigan (Lafayette Street). Production ended in 1916; many manufacturers of cyclecars were failing in the US since 1914. The Heseltine Motor Corporation is considered to be the successor to Gadabout, its cars were sold as Heseltines.
Cars
Cars
The original 1914 car was a two-seater (side-by-side, so technically not a cyclecar) with right-hand steering, an 86-inch wheel base and a 46-inch wheel track. The car used a 12 horsepower four-cylinder Sterling motor, Schebler carburetor, and a solid rear axle made by the Detroit Axle Company. The design features included magneto ignition and splash lubrication. The 1916 model, shown at the Chicago Automobile Show in January, had dropped the wickework body and got a longer wheelbase of 104 inches.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- United States
Named but not plotted · 1
Gadabout is associated with United States.
Country
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Kimes, Beverly Rae. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942. Krause Publications. 1989. 0-87341-111-0.
- Kimes, Beverly Rae. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942. Krause Publications. 1996. 0-87341-428-4.
- Georgano, G. N. The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. 2000. 1-57958-293-1.
- Wise, David Burgess. The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles. Quarto Inc. 1992. 1-55521-808-3.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- GAC HondaOrganisation
- GAC MitsubishiOrganisation
- GAC MotorOrganisation
- GAC ToyotaOrganisation
- Gadget and the GadgetinisWork
- Gadget TrialWork
- Gadget TwinsWork
- gadulkaTerminology
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Gadabout?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.