The drive-in with a difference

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Los Angeles, California, 1949. The scene is 8123 Beverly Boulevard: a drive-in diner with a difference. The restaurant is named The Track and uses a system called the Motormat, invented by one Kenneth C. Purdy. That’s not the same Ken Purdy we know from his excellent motoring books, is it?

Anyway, the Motormat was an interesting idea. One report described it thus: 'Like a group of horses at a trough, cars ringed around a central building, forming a circular pattern. Twenty semi-circular parking spaces bridged a center kitchen by means of metal tracks. Food and condiments rode the rails within carrying compartment(s), each powered by a small ½-horsepower motor. Inside a box were plastic cups, a water bottle, menu, order pad, and change tray. It was large, too. Food for six people could be ferried back and forth on the elevated platforms. Patrons would jot down their orders and with the push of a button, the unit scooted a return to the kitchen. According to its inventor, the spoke-and-wheel-track arrangement sped up service 20-25 percent.”

The name ‘The Track’ actually referred to horse racing, with each of the 20 parking spaces named after a then-famous racing horse with its own trolley sent out to cars at 120 feet per minute (or 1.36 mph, which does sound not quite so spectacular). Did it work? Perhaps not terribly well. From a much more recent report: 'You just know the crazy trolley system must have hit snags constantly, with burgers and fries and chicken wings and cokes flying all over the hoods of Hudsons and DeSotos...' The Motormat automated drive-in restaurant branched out to three establishments in the LA area of 1950 - all of them had gone by 1952…

Words: Jeroen Booij; pictures: Historic Los Angeles/Kurt Hutton

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