Smallest Auto in the World "Hoot Gibson Special" driven bt Gus Prezel

October 1925 The Decatur Herald

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Metro history: 'Midget runs 52 miles on a gallon of gas'

June 27, 1926: F. S. Townsley, chief ranger, officially handed a permit to Guz Petzel, allowing him to drive his “four-cylinder, home-made product” through Yosemite National Park -- the smallest automobile to enter it. But it was a harbinger of bigger things: “Nature lovers, old-timers” and their allies had been working to keep a road out of the Yosemite Valley. As The Times reported a few weeks later, a new road built by convicts was opened, “so broad and level that it brings the valley within seven or eight hours of easy driving from the Golden Gate.” Officials expected a ten-fold increase of visitors to the park. (The New York Times)

Pettingell’s long-lost custom bodies | Hemmings Daily

Pettingell’s long-lost custom bodies | Hemmings Daily

In the 1920s and 1930s, every self-respecting American coachbuilder and autobody manufacturer used metal-forming tools made by Pettingell. The Pettingell Machine Co. of Amesbury, Massachusetts, supplied large power hammers, bead formers, metal rollers and panel trimmers to customers like Fisher Body, Briggs, Murray, Biddle & Smart, Judkins, Fleetwood, Locke and Derham. Click on link above to read more.