World’s Oldest Car Powered by Steam Heads to Auction

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We can probably debate what counts as the world’s first real automobile, since the De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout is more of a train without tracks than an actual car. This over-named vehicle is up for auction, and ran not on gasoline that would come to define the car…but on steam power.

We can probably debate what counts as the world’s first real automobile, since the De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout is more of a train without tracks than an actual car. This over-named vehicle is up for auction, and ran not on gasoline that would come to define the car…but on steam power.

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The Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout was built in 1884 by the combined efforts of Comte de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Charles-Armand Trepardoux. Dion found Bouton and Trepardoux getting paid a pittance to build small children’s toys. He commissioned them to build a full-size engine upon which one could ride. Their first effort was prone to catching fire, but in 1884 they came up with this contraption, named La Marquise.

For further information: http://www.matternetwork.com/2011/10/worlds-oldest-car-powered-by.cfm