By: Rénald Fortier
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
“A prophet is not without honour except in his own country.” – The Hungarian Canadian Louis Gyory and the unfulfilled future of his electric and hybrid vehicles, part 1
The experimental hybrid automobile completed by Briggs & Stratton Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anon., “Driver Decides Speed, Range – ‘Performance Flexibility’ Cited.” Statesville Record & Landmark, 14 November 1979, 1-D.
Greetings and salutations, my reading friend. Even though yours truly is not a great fan of the automobile, a major source of pollution and major cause of climate change, I will admit to a certain interest in the history of that type of vehicle. I am, however, far more interested in the lesser knows manufacturers than in the behemoths of that industry. I am also far more interested in teeny tiny automobiles than in the gasoline guzzling behemoths produced by the automobile industry.
Mind you, I am also interested in electric and hybrid automobiles.
In anticipation of the question that you are undoubtedly about to ask after reading the title of this article, my perennially puzzled reading friend, the illustrations which showed the experimental hybrid automobile, seemingly known as the Hybrid, completed by the American firm Briggs & Stratton Corporation in 1979 were not included in this issue of our amaaazing blog / bulletin / thingee through some fit of absentmindedness.
You see, that vehicle was developed by Briggs & Stratton with the help of the firm at the heart of said issue, Marathon Golf Car Limited / Marathon Electric Car Company Limited / Marathon Electric Vehicles Incorporated of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec. There is indeed method to my madness. Most of the time.
There is also an individual at the heart of that same issue. His name was Louis “Lou” Gyory, born Győry Lajos in 1925, in Magyarország / Hungary.
And you have a question… What type of automobile accompanied Briggs & Stratton’s hybrid automobile, you ask, my reading friend? Well, all I know is that it is an early 20th century electric automobile, but you digress.
Little is known about Gyory’s early years. He might, however, have served in the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő, in other words the royal Hungarian air force, as an aircraft mechanic, and this during the final stages of the Second World War, a conflict during which Hungary had fought side by side with National Socialist Germany from late June 1941 onward.
Units of the Rabóche-krest’yánskaya Krásnaya Ármiya, or workers’ and peasants’ red army, having invaded Hungary in September 1944, representatives of an utterly overwhelmed provisional government had to sign an armistice, in Moskva / Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in January 1945.
Like a great many members of the Hungarian armed forces, Gyory was shipped to a prisoner of war camp on Soviet soil. He spent 4 or so years there.
As Gyory languished in a hell hole, the parliamentary republican government set up in Hungary in February 1946 was gradually taken over by the country’s communist party, the Magyar Népköztársaság. The latter formally took over in August 1949.
A Vörös Csillag Traktorgyár Dutra DR-50 dump truck used to pick up straw at the Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft ‘Ernst Thälmann’, Bennewitz, East Germany, August 1964. Incidentally, a Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft was a large East German collectivised farm. Deutsches Bundesarchiv, 183-C0822-0091-001.
Some time after his return to Hungary, in 1949 perhaps, Gyory trained as an automobile mechanic. He might have played a small part in the development of the Dutra DR-50, the first dump truck produced in Hungary, from 1955 onward, by a government-owned firm, Vörös Csillag Traktorgyár.
Mind you, Gyory was one of the many Hungarians who was permitted to form a small privately-owned business, a small transport firm to be more precise. And then, all hell broke loose.
You see, in late October 1956, countless Hungarians rose against the oppressive government of the Magyar Népköztársaság and its equally oppressive policies. Overwhelmed by what was taking place, that government asked its Soviet counterpart and puppet master for assistance. The Soviet forces stationed in Hungary leapt into action. More soldiers soon poured across the border.
At some point, Gyory was asked to transport some of his wounded compatriots in his two trucks. He agreed.
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 / Hungarian Upraising of 1956 came to a bloody end in early November, 12 days after it had begun. No less than 2 500 or so Hungarians had been killed and a further 20 000 or so wounded. Something like 22 000 individuals later went to jail. Worse still, 250 to 350 individuals were executed. Fearing retribution, between 200 000 and 250 000 Hungarians fled their home and native land.
Approximately 37 500 of there refugees found a home in Canada in 1956-57. Gyory was one of them. He arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by ship, in December 1956.
After 6 or so months spent chopping wood in a northern forest, Gyory became the co-owner of a garage. Two or so years later, he had an automobile repair shop / garage of his own, in Montréal, Québec.
Gyory seemingly began to work on electric vehicles in 1962-63, possibly as a result of doing some maintenance and repair work on the golf carts of some as yet unidentified entity, a golf course probably.
Louis Gyory and the blue Daihatsu Hijet Cab light truck he turned into an electric vehicle. Anon., “Battery-powered truck keeps up to Montreal mid-day traffic pace.” The Gazette, 29 July 1970, 23.
By 1967, Gyory had turned a Taihatsu Haizetto Kyabu kei torakku, or Daihatsu Hijet Cab light truck, into an electric vehicle which was whizzing around in the streets of Montréal at up to 48 or so km/hr (30 or so mph). By 1970, that vehicle could reach 64 or so km/hr (40 or so mph).
Gyory’s (proof of concept?) prototype was powered by an electric motor powered by half a dozen 8-volt lead-acid batteries similar to those which could be found on golf carts, I think.
A turning point in Gyory’s efforts came in 1969 when the manager of the bank he was doing business with forwarded a request for funding to a brand-new small venture capital firm, Canri Management Limited of Montréal. David C. Salter, an entrepreneur and founder of that firm, was impressed and decided to invest some money in Gyory’s firm, Marathon Golf Car, which was seemingly founded in 1970, or 1969.
By May 1978 at the latest, Salter was the chairperson and largest investor of what was by then Marathon Electric Car. He was also a private pilot, mind you, but back to 1969-70.
Marathon Golf Car’s first product was, you guessed it, an electric golf cart.
A brief digression if I may. Would you believe that what could well be the first golf cart, an electric golf cart, was completed in March 1930 for a well-off golfer from Pasadena, California, Curtis Moore Willock, who had lost a good part of a leg in December 1886, two days after his 11th birthday?
The name of another well-off golfer, John Keener Wadley of Texarcana, Arkansas, has also been put forward but I have yet to figure out when he allegedly used a type of electric cart used in Los Angeles, California, to transport people
This being said (typed?), golf carts only appeared in substantial numbers on American golf courses during the first half of the 1950s, but back to our story.
By 1970-71, Marathon Golf Car was also producing a small industrial electric vehicle, the Marathon M-100.
That vehicle and the golf cart had aluminum chassis and fibreglass bodies, to minimise weight, an important consideration given the weight of their batteries, but back to 1970 and the converted Hijet.
At the time, the Commission hydroélectrique du Québec was looking into electricity as a new power source for vehicles in preparation for the day when gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles would be banned from the congested downtown cores of major cities. Yes, yes, the commission was preparing for such a day almost 55 years ago. The mind boggles.
A rhetorical question if I may. To quote, out of context, Bartholomew Jojo “Bart” Simpson, are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Sorry, sorry… Sorry.
Incidentally, the first Hijet was introduced on the Japanese market in November 1960. The 11th generation of that polymorphic vehicle hit the road in 2021. Indeed, the Hijet trademark has been around longer than that of any other vehicle in its category. Total sales exceed 7 500 000 examples, in quite a few countries, including Canada, but back to our story.
The Commission hydroélectrique du Québec was quite interested in the innovative circuitry system developed by Marathon Golf Car, a system which might make it feasible to produce, hopefully in Québec, short range road vehicles fitted with widely used electric motors and lead-acid batteries. Said system was tested by engineers of the Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec, in Varennes, Québec, using one of the aforementioned M-100, I think.
And yes, the batteries in question were indeed heavy. Those of Gyory’s modified Hijet Cab tipped the scales at 450 or so kilogrammes (1 000 or so pounds), for example.
As the tests were taking place, yes, again, in 1970, Marathon Golf Car was apparently in the final stages of developing a tracked electric which could be used in warehouses and railway yards. From the looks of it, that project did not see the light of day. Mind you, the journalist reporting the story might have misunderstood what was being said to him. The vehicle in question might have had wheels rather than tracks.
In any event, would you believe that the firm was considering the possibility of developing a road vehicle which might be used for things like errands or door to door deliveries, and not on highways, given its likely and limited speed (72 or so km/hr (45 or so mph)) and range (160 or so kilometres (100 or so miles))?
A typical Marathon Electro-Pony electrical tractor. Anon., “l’électro-poney, tracteur électrique.” Le Guide, 2 November 1972, 11.
Mind you, no later than 1972, Marathon Golf Car commercialised a small electric tractor which could be used to plough snow, mow lawns, harrow fields, etc. The Electro-Pony could move about for nearly six hours before it had to be plugged into an ordinary 115- or 120-volt outlet.
Yes, yes, my sceptical reading friend, an ordinary 115- or 120-volt outlet. Both voltages could seemingly be found at the time. I had no idea. How about you?
A typical General Electric Elec-Trak electric garden tractor. Anon., “Easy to Use.” The Hartford Courant, 29 March 1970, 7G.
And no, my flag waving reading friend, the Electro-Pony was not the first vehicle of its type. General Electric Company, an American giant mentioned in many issues of our exceptional blog / bulletin / thingee, and this since April 2018, had commercialised its Elec-Trak, the first commercially produced electric garden tractor on our big blue marble, in 1970.
And yes, the Electro-Pony and the Elec-Trak were indeed very similar in appearance.
And yes, again, my astute reading friend, engineers of the Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec tested an Electro-Pony during the summer of 1972. Better yet, they compared its capabilities to that of the Elec-Trak. Those tests showed that the Québec product could compete with its American counterpart.
This being said (typed?), the good people of the Commission hydroélectrique du Québec knew only too well that the Electro-Pony needed a sponsor of sufficient prestige to take over its manufacture, promotion and marketing. From the looks of it, no one came knocking.
Even though its commercial success was in no way compatible to that of its American counterpart, the Electro-Pony found customers in Canada. Thirty or so others went to a firm in Texas, and…
Did the Commission hydroélectrique du Québec help Marathon Golf Car to obtain that order, you ask, my reading friend? I do not know, but it might indeed have done so.
You see, in 1972, the French counterpart of the Commission hydroélectrique du Québec, Électricité de France Service national, asked Marathon Golf Car to submit a quote concerning the possible purchase of 10 or so Electro-Ponies. Good people at the Commission hydroélectrique du Québec assisted the small firm in that process. Unfortunately, yours truly does not know if that sale was actually completed.
As well, I do not know if the United States Postal Service actually put in service the small vehicle that the Québec firm had designed for the distribution of mail.
And you have a question… Was the Electro-Pony the only electric vehicle produced by Marathon Golf Car around 1972-73? A good question. To make a long story short, and you know painfully well how much yours truly likes to do that, no. And here is proof of that statement.
The entire (?) product line of Marathon Golf Car Limited of Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, Québec, “the Makers of The World’s Best Electric Golf Car.” Anon., “Thomson Vanier Equipment Limited.” The Gazette, 31 March 1973, 4.
Quite the product line, was is not? It included, from top to bottom, and left to right,
- the Electro-Scooter – “Stable, Sturdy, Easy Handling. Speed variable from (1.5 to 34 or so km/hr) 1 to 21 m.p.h. Range to (65 or so kilometres) 40 miles on one Battery Charge. Parking and Foot Brake. Carries 2 Persons plus Merchandise.”
- the Industrial Carrier – “For transporting of 6 personnel and/or materials. Capacity (360 or so kilogrammes) 800 lbs., Speeds to (19.5 or so km/hr) 12 mph. Operator’s Cab available. Also lights and horn.”
- the Electro-Pony 18 h.p. Tractor – “Rugged, Safe, Vibration Free. Suitable for indoor and outdoor use in Industrial Plants and Warehouses, Strong Draw-Bar pull for heavy hauling. Speeds to (13 or so km/hr) 8 mph.
- the Flat-Bed Truckster – “Capacity (900 or so kilogrammes) 2,000 lbs. on flat bed (1.15 x 2.15 or so metres) 46” x 84”. 2-speed range Gear Box (Bull [sic] and Transport) high Draw Bar Pull,” and
- the Personal Carrier – “Compact size. Length (1.4 or so metre) 55”, width (60 or so centimetres) 24”. Sturdy, Stable, Welded Steel Body. Short turning radius. Speeds to (14.5 or so km/hr) 9 mph, 8 hr. working day between charges.”
Mind you, it looked as if Marathon Golf Car also sold golf carts made by well-known (foreign?) makers.
The number of vehicles produced up to 1977 or so did not exceed 600 or so, all versions and types included. Most of those were golf carts. While it was true that production of said golf carts had come to a stop by then, because they did not generate enough money, that of at least some of the vehicles listed above went on.
Incidentally, Marathon Golf Car’s money generation problems were seemingly caused by the arrival on the North American market of cheap yet reliable golf cars manufactured in Poland, a country without a single golf course. I kid you not.
The first Melex golf carts apparently made their appearance on North America golf courses during the spring of 1971, albeit in small numbers. Those numbers grew, however. As a result, the Polish authorities set up Melex USA Incorporated in 1973 to distribute those golf carts.
Interestingly, at least to me, a perennial wing nut, said golf carts were produced by Wytwórnię Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego Delta-Mielec. Why is that interesting, you ask, my puzzled reading friend? A good question. You see, back in the 1950s, that state firm was known as Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego, Zakład nr 1 w Mielec and it produced, among other things, jet fighters like the WSK Lim-2, the license-built version of a world-famous Soviet jet fighter, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15.
Did you know that a Lim-2 can be found on the floor of the stupendous Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, Ontario? You did? Good for you. And no, you cannot grab yourself a gold star. I am not falling for that one. To quote the old proverb, fool me once, shame on you; fool me, err, never mind.
As you might have expected, there was eventually a fair amount of grumbling within the American golf cart industry. Accusations of dumping were bandied about in 1974 and investigated. AMF Incorporated and Harley-Davidson Motor Company Incorporated, yes, that Harley-Davidson, even alleged that the design of the Polish golf carts dumped on the American market was based on plans surreptitiously obtained by Polish operatives in 1970. I kid you not.
Stanisław Kolicki, the fictional and suitably heroic Second World War spy of the very popular Polish television series Stawka Większa niż Życie, broadcasted between October 1968 and February 1969 by the government television broadcaster Telewizja Polska, would have been proud.
In fact, the idea of (illegally??) producing golf carts in Poland might, I repeat might, have been pitched to the Polish authorities by two American businessmen in the late 1960s.
In turn, the golf carts produced in Poland might have been copies, illegal copies by the looks of it, of vehicles designed by the E-Z-GO Division of Textron Incorporated, an American industrial conglomerate mentioned in several issues of our incandescent blog / bulletin / thingee since October 2017.
As is turned out, the United States International Trade Commission ruled in 1976 that the Polish government was guilty of dumping golf carts on the American market.
The United States Customs Service of the United States Department of the Treasury could not, however, figure out the amount of anti-dumping duties to be imposed on said golf carts. You see, it proved impossible to come up with a fair market price for golf carts produced in a communist country.
Would you believe that, by 1978, what was then Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego ‘PZL-Mielec’ had allegedly captured more than 45% of the American golf cart market? Or that this firm was the largest manufacturer of golf carts on our big blue marble? And please remember that Poland did not contain so much as a hint of a golf course at that time.
As it turned out, Polish golf carts were still reaching American golf courses in 2015, if not later, in small numbers, but I digress. Still, pontificating about Polish golf carts was kind of fun, was it not? Now, now, be honest. I could hear you chortle in your jammies, but back to our story.
Did you know that the Service des travaux publics of Montréal acquired 40 or so Industrial Carriers, I think, to pick up refuse in the late 1970s? Or that the Régie des installations olympiques which ran the famous Stade Olympique of Montréal operated an Industrial Carrier or Flat-Bed Truckster as an ambulance no later than 1977?
A little bird told me that Marathon Electric Car also supplied an otherwise unidentified vehicle used as a mobile television camera platform during the marathon competition held during the Games of the XXI Olympiad held between 17 July and 1 August 1976, in Montréal.
By 1975, Marathon Golf Car had designed a sporty 2-seat electric automobile optimised for use in urban and suburban areas. It might, I repeat might, have taken a prototype of that vehicle to Washington, District of Columbia, in May 1974, in order to display it at the 10th Annual Transportation Conference. Said prototype might, I repeat, again, might, have been the only electric vehicle on display. It understandably garnered a lot of attention – and encouragements.
The catch with that sporty vehicle project was that the firm could not raise the dough, $500 000 or so, a sum which corresponded to $2 725 000 or so in 2024 currency, needed to complete development of that design and launch its production.
As a result, Marathon Golf Car could not profit from the US $9 000 000 standing order that an American firm, Genser-Forman Incorporated, the sole distributor in the northeastern United States of Triumph automobiles and parts manufactured by the British automotive giant British Leyland Motor Corporation Limited, had concluded at some point with its bank.
And yes, British Leyland Motor was indeed mentioned in August 2018, November 2019 and February 2022 issues of our eye-catching blog / bulletin / thingee. Good for you, my reading friend.
That standing order, worth almost $73 000 000 in 2024 currency, would have been quite the windfall for the small Québec firm. The catch with that windfall was that Lawrence “Bud” Forman, president of the Genser-Forman, and Lester Genser, his business partner, were indicted by a federal grand jury, in April 1976. You see, the two men had siphoned off into their own pockets up to US $3 400 000 from the operating revenues of their firm, thus preventing the Internal Revenue Service from taking its fair share.
By the way, that sum corresponded to $33 300 000 or so in 2024 currency. Wah!
In 2024 Canadian currency, of course, as were and will be all the other 2024 currency sums of money.
Interestingly enough, British Leyland Motor had discontinued its business with Genser-Forman in early 1973 when evidence of fraud had surfaced. It had soon bought out the firm, which had liquidated its assets later that year.
The fact that the standing order was still mentioned in a May 1975 issue of a Canadian weekly, The Financial Post of Toronto, Ontario, seemed to indicate that news of Genser-Forman’s financial troubles had not percolated all the way to Canada – or that someone did not want that piece of news to become known.
Incidentally, Genser and Forman were sentenced to 8 years in jail and fined US $130 000 each in November 1976. That sum corresponded to $995 000 or so in 2024 currency, by the way. Both men appealed their sentence, thrice I believe, and lost on all three occasions, but back to Marathon Golf Car or, as it seemingly became around 1975-76, the aforementioned Marathon Electric Car.
You know what, my reading friend, it might be a good idea to end the 1st part of this article before we actually get back to Marathon Electric Car.
See ya later.
P.S. You will never guess what yours truly came across yesterday, my reading friend. No, not the place where one can find all the missing socks and forks (Hello, EP, EG and SB!). Let us be serious, please. What I came across was the electric golf cart completed in March 1930 for the aforementioned Willock. Behold!
The American engineer Paul Hinkley at the wheel of the electric golf cart he completed in March 1930 for a well-off golfer from Pasadena, California, Curtis Moore Willock. Anon., “The caddy finds a mechanical competitor for his job: Paul Hinkley.” Mid-Week Pictorial, 12 April 1930, 16.
Incidentally, the designer of the vehicle in question was an engineer named Paul Hinkley. He was employed by Walter M. Murphy Company, a renowned Californian automobile coachbuilder for the rich and famous, from the extraordinarily popular American actor Rudolph Valentino, born Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella, to the much less popular King Carol II of Romania, born Carol Caraiman of house Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
Rénald Fortier
More Stories by
![A block of photographs showing some of the people involved in the bombing of beluga whales in the estuary and gulf of the St. Lawrence River. Anon., “La chasse aux marsouins [sic]. » Le Devoir, 15 August 1929, 6.](/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_7/public/2024-09/Le%20Devoir%2015%20aout%201929%20page%206.jpg?h=584f1d27&itok=TppdLItg)
![Peter Müller at the controls [sic] of the Pedroplan, Berlin, Germany, March 1931. Anon., “Cologne contre Marseille – Le mystère du ‘Pédroplan.’ [sic]” Les Ailes, 2 April 1931, 14.](/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_7/public/2021-04/Les%20Ailes%202%20avril%201931%20version%20big.jpg?h=eafd0ed4&itok=WnBZ5gMf)
![One of the first de Havilland Canada Chipmunk imported to the United Kingdom. Anon., “De Havilland [Canada] DHC-1 ‘Chipmunk.’” Aviation Magazine, 1 January 1951, cover.](/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_7/public/2021-01/Aviation%20magazine%201er%20janvier%201951%20version%202.jpg?h=2f876e0f&itok=DM4JHe5C)
