World’s oldest running car likely to fetch $1.6million at auction

The world’s oldest running car is expected to fetch 1.6 million dollars when it goes under the hammer at auction next month.

The steam-powered 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos runabout was commissioned in France in 1881 for the Count De Dion, 12 years before Henry Ford assembled his first car.

Nicknamed “La Marquise” in a tribute to De Dion’s own mother, the 127-year-old car is only nine feet long and weighs 2,100 pounds with a maximum speed of 38 miles per hour.

The car takes 45 minutes to generate enough steam to drive, is powered by bits of paper, wood and coal, and has its thin metal wheels wrapped with solid rubber.

“It feels like going 80 or 90 miles per hour in a newer automobile. And, by newer, I mean 1910,” the Daily Mail quoted David Goodling, the auction house founder as saying.

Count De Dion is said to have held on to his prized asset until 1906, before finally selling it to French army officer Henri Doriol, who owned “La Marquise” for 81 years but failed to get it running after it lost both copper and brass fittings following the war in 1914.

In 1987, Tim Moore, a member of the British Veteran Car Club took the car and had the car functioning again within a year, after which he took part in several competitions in the vehicle, including four London-Brighton rides.