The world's oldest working car is to go under the hammer - and is expected to fetch up to £1 million.

The four-wheeled car, called La Marquise, was built in 1884 for the Count De Dion.

The steam-powered car has only had two other owners since, according to auctioneers Gooding & Company.

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 26mph 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.

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 German.

Twelve years later, Henry Ford built his first automobile in the US.

La Marquise goes under the hammer in August in Pebble Beach, California.

you could burn your garbage to run it! ;D

The world's oldest working car is to go under the hammer - and is expected to fetch up to £1 million.

The four-wheeled car, called La Marquise, was built in 1884 for the Count De Dion.

The steam-powered car has only had two other owners since, according to auctioneers Gooding & Company.

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 26mph on a 19-mile course.


This is why a lot of folks thought there was no future for "horseless carriages."  We can call it short-sighted now, but had you been standing on the sidewalk in 1885 and seen that thing come thud-thud-thudding up the street at 12 mph all smoking and gasping, you'd say horse manure was a minor inconvenience!
;D