Thursday, July 12

Worlds Oldest Running Car


The worlds oldest car is soon to come up for sale at auction, but no wonder they didn't make many of them. What with half an hour to make enough steam to go and a plentiful supply of wood and coal needed to keep it going, I wouldn't fancy using it as a taxi.
The four-wheeled car, called La Marquise, was built in 1884 for the Count De Dion, one of the founders of the automobile manufacturers De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux. It has only had two other owners since, according to Gooding & Company, the auction house selling it.
The four-seater, fuelled by coal, wood and paper, takes about half an hour to work up enough steam to go. In an 1887 race, La Marquise hit an average speed of 26 miles per hour on a 19-mile course. The following year it won the world's first motor race, beating out its three-wheeled competition, another De Dion-Bouton.
The steam-powered La Marquise was built in France in 1884 by De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux, one year before Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz each independently built their first gasoline-powered cars in Germany. Twelve years later, Henry Ford built his first automobile in the US.

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