The purchase of this extremely rare 1910 Duryea Buggyaut fulfills a childhood dream

The Duryea name is one that should be well recognized by any student steeped in American automotive antiquity. I read a lot of books 30 years ago as a kid obsessed with the subject and, without fail, the Duryea brothers were key characters in many. For the benefit of those new to the vintage vehicle community, in 1896, J. Frank and Charles Duryea were the first in the United States to establish an automobile factory in Chicopee, Massachusetts, to make a series run of what were then often called horseless carriages. A total of 13 identical, self-propelled vehicles were built, of which only one is known to exist today. That car is in the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan. 

Yet, growing up just south of Saginaw, Michigan, that wasn’t the most interesting part of the Duryea brothers’ story to me. What I noticed was something more local. When the brothers parted ways after the demise of the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, Charles went on to build his own vehicles under the Duryea name, and from 1911 until 1914, his factory was in Saginaw. It was that factory which had produced Duryea’s Buggyaut and Electa models. I began to dream of finding one of these Duryea vehicles hidden in a barn or garage around Saginaw, but alas, I never did.  

Since then, I have turned my childhood passion into a profession working in the museum field, specifically as a Curator and Historic Vehicle Conservator. This has afforded me the opportunity to work on the sole known remaining 1896 Duryea; examples of the Charles Duryea-designed Duryea Trap and Duryea Electa; and even one of J. Frank Duryea’s Stevens-Duryea models. Still, in the back of my mind lived that hope of one day finding a Saginaw-built Duryea Buggyaut or Electa for myself.  

In late 2023, I was notified about a Duryea located outside of Miami, Florida. After months of conversations with the owner, I made a quick trip to inspect the car after the 2024 Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance. What I discovered was a completely disassembled Buggyaut resting in a single-car garage. To my astonishment, the owner accepted my eventual offer, and I became the new caretaker of the Buggyaut. On Memorial Day weekend of 2024, I was able to make a road trip with my father to acquire the Duryea and add it to our growing collection of antique vehicles. 

At this point in the story, I am sure you are expecting for this to be a perfect dream come true; however, at the time of this writing, the Buggyaut is believed to be a 1910 model, which places its production in Reading, Pennsylvania (1900-’11), rather than Saginaw (Editor’s note: Manufacturing relocated frequently. Duryeas were produced in Peoria, Illinois (1898-1899); Waterloo, Iowa (1902-’03); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1914-’15); and finally, back to Reading from 1916-’17). That doesn’t change the fact that I have fulfilled a childhood dream of owning a Duryea Buggyaut, and if there is one thing I have learned from working with antique vehicles for so long, it’s that you never know until you fully research a vehicle what year it truly was built and where it was produced.  

I was recently reminded of this with the 1912 Hupmobile Model 20 speedster my father and I purchased. The car was sold as a 1910 model, but after locating the serial number and checking it against Hupmobile production records, it turned out to have been produced as a 1912 edition. So, there is still a small window of hope that my Buggyaut may have been built in Saginaw. Even if it wasn’t, the Duryea is still representative of the same models built near my hometown.  

The next part of this automobile’s story began with the need to inventory and survey all of the Duryea parts, which is integral to understanding how many of the original Buggyaut components remain and what may need to be reproduced during its planned restoration. The good news is that all the parts we removed from the seller’s garage that have been inventoried to this point are all in good, restorable, and usable condition. The greatest surprise is that all the brass lamps remained with the Buggyaut and are in good condition. Not only are they popular items to remove from discarded old cars for souvenirs or scrap metal, brass damages very easily. 

One of the more intriguing Duryea components from this period was its air-cooled, two-cylinder, two-stroke engine design. It can be best described as being similar to a pair of single-cylinder engines running in unison, side-by-side, with a flywheel between them secured to a common crankshaft. I anxiously await the day we hear the exhaust notes emanating from this unique arrangement.  

That flywheel was notably the only revolving part on a Buggyaut, aside from the car’s four wheels. Further, the engine didn’t quite look like the air-cooled designs of today. It was referred to as “spine cooled” by Duryea, the design of which used a series of metal spines that stick out from the cylinder wall, which thus created an appearance like a large brush. The engine (or should I say “engines?”) on this Duryea, are in overall good condition, though several metal spines will require a bit of chiropractic work to straighten. In addition, I will need to tidy up some of the repairs done long-ago made to one of the crankcases.  

The rest of the Buggyaut is in relatively good condition, as well. The frame rails, wooden bodywork, lone seat, brass lamps, and the other small components are all only in need of small repairs to return each to their as-new condition.  

As mentioned, the biggest challenge behind this entire project will be its reassembly. With nearly every piece of the Buggyaut having been disassembled long ago, unpacking the boxes of puzzle pieces, laying the entire vehicle out in our shop to understand what components remain and what, if any, may be missing—before even thinking about repair or restoration work—is the only logical starting point for this project.  

Although there is major work ahead, my excitement of owning a Duryea Buggyaut is still at its peak. The Duryea name is not only one of the most significant in American automotive antiquity, but also to my childhood dreams and lifelong goal. I think it is only fitting to use an old cliché… if you are looking for that car you’ve dreamt about forever, it’s still out there. Just keep looking—you never know what you will find. 

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