Puzzle #187 - Solved! 1953 Gregory

[Otto Puzzell]

Know what it is?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.

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Thanks!

Photo Credit: http://www.tomstrongman.com/

[hugo90]

The wheels look like Fiat 124 or Lada, and the front bumper looks like 1955 Chevrolet, so probably a Lada project, but never saw it before.

[Otto Puzzell]

Not Fiat or Lada.

[porridgehead]

Woodill Wildfire?

[D-type]

I missed this one firsttime around.  It has the air of a TR2 about it, is it a Swallow Doretti by any chance?

[porridgehead]

It ain't no Woodill, that's for certain. Some similarities, but not the Woodill windshield.

I have seen this car somewhere though.

[Otto Puzzell]

I missed this one firsttime around.  It has the air of a TR2 about it, is it a Swallow Doretti by any chance?

No.

[Otto Puzzell]

Woodill Wildfire?

No

[erbas]

Eastern Europe including former Soviet Union

[Otto Puzzell]

Including the parts that are in Asia?

[Otto Puzzell]

This car was constructed in the US, though some of the parts were not.

[SeaLion]

Could one of the parts be a Saab engine perhaps?

[Otto Puzzell]

No, the engine was from another manufacturer.

[JR]

Very difficult to tell what it is from this angle, but it could be the roadster built by Ben F. Gregory. Which I believe was a one-off constructed sometime between 1953 and 1956. I think it had a Porsche engine and front wheel drive and hand made aluminium body.

JR

[Otto Puzzell]

Gregory built about 10 front-wheel-drive automobiles between 1918 and 1922. His interest in front-wheel drive paralleled that of Frenchman J.A. Gregoire, who invented the Tracta constant-velocity joint for the Citroen Traction Avant. About that time, Ben Gregory barnstormed local tracks and raced a car powered by a Hispano-Suiza airplane engine. These cars, according to a June 1956 article in Road & Track magazine, preceded the famous front-drive Miller racers by about a year. In 1921 he exhibited a touring car at the Kansas City Auto Show.

The Gregory sports car has a tube frame and a hand-formed body. The four-cylinder, air-cooled Porsche engine is mounted at the very front of the car, with the transaxle toward the center of the vehicle.  The Road & Track article said the 1,925-pound car could hit 95 or 100 mph with the 70 horsepower engine. Gregory's sports car featured center-point, vertical-pivot steering with large wheel bearings that housed Rzeppa constant-velocity joints, according to the magazine's article. Gregory hoped to build 20 cars, which would have sold for $5,000.

In the 1950s, Gregory also developed the prototype M422 Mighty Mite, a tiny four-wheel-drive vehicle for the Marines. American Motors built 5,000 based on his prototype vehicle.

[Carnut]

What's this, by whom, powered by what and from when - for 1 point?:

ANYONE FOUND GIVING ANSWERS GLEANED BY USING GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE MAY BE BANNED FOR AN INDETERMINATE PERIOD!

[FrontMan]

Jowett Jupiter, modded in the USA?

[Carnut]

Jowett Jupiter, modded in the USA?

No.

[FrontMan]

Allard?

[Carnut]

Allard?

No.

[Carnut]

This one turns out to be a re-post, so unless a Rookie gets it in the next few days it will be merged with the original puzzle.
So, wake up Rookies!

[kwgibbs]

Is it a product of Ben Gregory?

[Carnut]

Is it a product of Ben Gregory?

Yes it is!
So it's locked for you to answer the remaining parts of the question.

[kwgibbs]

ben gregory,s 1953 sports car

[Carnut]

ben gregory,s 1953 sports car

Almost but not quite the right year.
I'm still looking for more information; this is a very unusual and interesting car so I need the maximum information about it to award a point. What powers it, for a start?