Here’s Your Chance: The World’s Oldest Car Is Up For Sale

This is your chance to own a “one-off”, there can never be another “world’s oldest car”. Its value can only go one way – North. It has been announced that RM Auctions of the USA will auction off the world’s oldest running car next month. Imaginatively named, the 1884 car is referred to as a De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout.

 

The car was nicknamed ‘La Marquise’ after the mother of the French entrepreneur that commissioned it, Count de Dion. The car was built by George Bouton and Charles-Armand Trepardoux. It measures just 9 feet in length and features twin compound steam engines, which allows a travelling range of around 20 miles after a 45-minute coal or coke steam. Not quite a BMW M3 rival, the La Marquise will reach a top speed of 37 mph.

 

Other novelties include ‘spade handle’ steering; the level of power assistance depending on when last you saw the inside of a gym, and the car seats four people back-to-back. These seats are positioned atop a steel tank that holds about 35 gallons of water.

 

The car has had just four owners over the years, the longest ownership period spanning 81 years. It’s had quite an accomplished life though, having been a participant in the first automobile race in 1887 and having been a double-award winner at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance 110 years later. Still a fully functioning car, the La Marquise recently successfully completed four London to Brighton runs in the UK where it was always the first car away as the oldest entry.

 

Estimated to fetch around $2,250,000, the La Marquise is one of the most important cars in the world, according to Rob Myers of RM Auctions. “With its impeccable provenance, fully-documented history and confirmation by leading historians as the world’s oldest running motor car, its sale represents a once-in-a-lifetime ownership opportunity for savvy collectors, unlikely ever to be repeated,” Myers said.

 

Ninety years after Bentley’s very first customer, Noel Van Raalte, took delivery of chassis number 3 for almost $2,000, that same 3-Litre was auctioned at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey, California for $962,500, about 500 times its new price. Chassis No.3 is completely original, with the same polished-aluminium bodywork and brass brightwork as when Van Raalte bought it in 1921, and has its original engine, with matching serial number.

 

Even on this early example, company founder WO Bentley’s insistence on fine craftsmanship and durable engineering, a product of his background in aircraft engine design, is clearly evident. His big, robust cars – once famously referred to by Ettore Bugatti as "the world’s fastest lorries" – went on to prove their mettle in the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, winning it five times in eight years. The first two victories – in 1924 and 1927 – came with 3-Litre models not much different from Van Raalte’s car.