Holland Man plans to sell rare 1914 cyclecar to museum Car may be 1 of 5 in existence

By Heidi Fenton The Grand Rapids Press HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) -- Larry Sybesma looked out the window of his Holland area home at a shiny white SUV parked in the driveway on a recent afternoon. A few feet away, inside his garage, a cyclecar built in the early 1900's sat on a trailer, ready for an upcoming trip to a North Carolina museum. The two cars represent almost 100 years of innovation in the Michigan automotive industry. "We all have our time," said Sybesma, momentarily pulling back the pages of history in a nearby book to a chapter telling the story of how James Booth crafted his cyclecar in 1914. "You kind of get an idea of what people had to work with back then." The Scripps Booth JB Rocket car sitting in Sybesma's garage is thought to be one of fewer than five of its kind still in existence today. We drive around with electric windows and air conditioning now, but the wheels of young Booth's mind were turning in the early 1900's as he imagined features considered basic today. As history tells, Booth's JB Rocket was among the first American cars to sport electric headlights. With that knowledge, Sybesma has a hard time letting his car go. But after about 20 years of ownership, he's decided to sell the vehicle to Wheels Through Time, an automotive museum in Maggie Valley North Carolina. It's time others have a chance to appreciate it, he says. The JB Rocket will leave his Holland area garage in the next two weeks for an hours-long trip south. But before he lets the beauty go, Sybesma tells the story of how he acquired the car -- a reflection on years of memories. Sybesma, whose family started Sybesma's Central Park Automotive, a longtime repair shop on South Shore Drive in Holland, has long had a passion for collecting cars. In the late 1980s, his collection peaked with more than 50 cars of all sizes and designs. They each had a story of their own. But when he heard of the Scripps Booth car reportedly sitting behind a storage facility in Ludington in the mid-1990s, Sybesma knew he had to check it out. The owner had died and a local attorney chose to set the car out in the weeds rather than paying for storage. Sybesma knew the vehicle had some worth. Once he brought it home, he learned details of the JB Rocket that took him by surprise. The car was crafted by James Booth, son of George G. Booth, a co-founder of Booth Newspapers. The newspaper chain was sold and evolved into what is known online today as MLive. James Booth reportedly began to think seriously about designing a car of his own at age 20, after failing the 10th grade three times. He had little interest in school, but a technical mind spinning with visions of advancements in the automotive industry. Years later, he set to work in a garage on the family's Cranbrook Estate, which exists today as a private school in Bloomfield Hills, outside of Detroit. There, Booth fashioned his JB Rocket, a cutting-edge cyclecar complete with a tilting steering wheel, electric headlights, and a back compartment with room for luggage. Booth was known to refer to his vehicle as a "four-wheeled motorcycle." That terminology is attractive to Dale Walksler, director of the Wheels Through Time Museum in North Carolina. The museum is known for its vast collection of American vintage motorcycles and will soon house Sybesma's cyclecar. Details of the sale are being kept private. The car will be the museum's oldest, Walksler said, and will round out a collection of cars through progressing years of the early auto industry. Walksler said the JB Rocket, still boasting original paint, holds value both in its historic story and its condition today. He's excited just thinking about it. The fact that the JB Rocket was manufactured in Michigan and is still in the state today makes it likely the vehicle never left, Walksler said. The Scripps-Booth Cyclecar Company, which James co-founded, became part of Chevrolet in 1917. Walksler has a "prominent" place for the cycle car ready and waiting. "I can't wait." Published: Wed, Apr 11, 2012