You probably know a fair amount about a wide range of automakers. You know what the four rings of the Audi logo symbolize. A Talbot-Lago is not a strange mash-up of words to you, and hearing "Bricklin" makes you think of gull-wing doors. Do you know about Mercer, though? We won't deduct car-person points if you don't as it's a fairly obscure US-automaker that lasted for just 16 or so years in the early days of the 20th century. Jay Leno, of course, has heard of Mercer. In fact, he owns one of the company's 1913 Raceabout cars.
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The Mercer Raceabout was essentially the American supercar of its day. Your average vehicle was putting up top speeds somewhere in the 40 mile-per-hour range. Meanwhile, a driver in a Raceabout could blow past them at 70, 80, even 90 mph. It was a vehicle that could, per Leno, be picked up at the factory and taken straight to the race track.
Jay grabs the camera and decides its time to explore his Raceabout, and it's a fascinating (though oddly Non-HD) look at an exceptionally rare vehicle. Mercer produced around 5,000 vehicles during the time it was in business, but so few remain today. We're glad Jay has one.
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