Engineering:La Marquise

From HandWiki
Short description: World's oldest running automobile
La Marquise

La Marquise is the world's oldest running automobile, as of 2011.[1] It is an 1884 model made by Frenchmen De Dion, Bouton and Trépardoux. The car was a quadricycle prototype named for de Dion's mother.[2]

In 1887, the Count of Dion drove La Marquise in an exhibition that has been called the world's first car race, though no other car showed up.[2] It made the 32-odd-kilometre (20 mile) Paris-to-Versailles round trip at an average speed of 25.5 km/h (almost 16 mph). The following year, he beat Bouton in a three-wheeler with an average speed of 29 km/h (19 mph).[2]

Fueled by coal, wood and bits of paper, the car takes 30–40 minutes to build up enough steam to drive. Top speed is 61 km/h (38 mph).[3]

As the oldest car, it wore the number "0" in the 1996 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.[2] The vehicle was sold at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance for $3.52 million.[4] It sold again in 2011 for $4.6 million, a record price for an early automobile.[1]

See also

References

External links

Multimedia:

-