Honorary Certificate finds its way back to the Foss family

The story of the ‘Fossmobile’ is one that many Sherbrooke locals are familiar with. George Foote Foss, who owned a bicycle repair shop in the city, occupied himself during the slow winter months by taking on the role of inventor. After building various model steam engines, model train locomotives, and his own electric motor for his boat, George Foss succeeded in developing the first ever gasoline-powered car in Canada in 1897. The car was eventually referred to as the ‘Fossmobile.’ While George never made a business out of this invention, his story is quite an important one. Since 2018, the Foss family has been working hard to bring recognition to his accomplishment and make people aware of this very important piece of Canadian Automotive history through Fossmobile Enterprises. Recently, the Foss family received an unexpected Christmas present in the form of an original certificate given to George by the Antique Automobile Club of America. It is one of only two certificates awarded by the organization to a Canadian and it has finally found its way back to the Foss family. Fossmobile Enterprises was started by Ron Foss, grandson of George Foss, over a year ago after meeting a group of people who wanted to create a replica of the ‘Fossmobile’. Ron started to work alongside the group on the project, but their perspectives clashed. “We had two different perspectives on how it should be done and how the story should be told so I decided it was best to part ways,” explained Ron.  See full story in the Tuesday, Dec. 31 edition of The Record.