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The 1884 De Dion Bouton Steam Runabout is tipped to get a final bid of up to $2.5 million. Photo Gallery
The world’s oldest running car will be driven onto an auction block in October.
With a name nearly as long as its history, the 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout is tipped to get a final bid of up to $2.5 million.
The car is 127 years old – two years older than the 1886 Patent Motorwagen that Mercedes-Benz touts as the world’s first car.
The French-made De Dion also won the world’s first car race in 1887 – although it wasn’t a surprising victory, since it was the only entrant for the 35km event.
However this didn’t stop it putting in the effort, and being clocked at the astounding top speed of 60km/h. That may have been during a downhill run, but its overall average speed was still a respectable 20km/h.
Nicknamed ‘La Marquise’ after the blue-blooded mother of one of the three co-founders, the car first sold for 4400 francs ($921) and has changed hands only three times since then, with the current seller’s family having owned it for the past 80 years.
The ‘Dos-A-Dos’ in the name refers to the seating that sees the four occupants sitting back-to-back.
La Marquise is fuelled by a coal-fed steam boiler that takes about 45 minutes to stoke up to the necessary pressure -- which suggests that quick trips down to the corner shop are probably out of the question.
The head of steam pressure drives two engines, one for each of the front wheels, and the car is steered by a spade-handled tiller.
It goes under the RM Auctions hammer at in Pennsylvania on October 7.
