La Marquise

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La Marquise

La Marquise is the name of a French steam car with four wheels and four seats that was built in 1884 by De Dion, Bouton et Trepardoux in Paris as a prototype for further vehicle production. La Marquise is the first racing car in the world, the second four-wheeled vehicle from this manufacturer and its oldest surviving and possibly the oldest surviving family car in the world.

prehistory

The engineer Charles-Armand Trépardoux (1853-1920) and the technician Georges Bouton (1847-1938) had been working on a new, lightweight boiler for steam engines since the late 1870s , which should be suitable for vehicles and which should be brought to operating temperature particularly quickly .

It was only when Count Albert de Dion made a financial contribution to the company that the boiler was completed, patented and brought onto the market in various sizes. In addition to stationary use and installation in boats - even the French Navy ordered them - use in a road vehicle was also planned. The first was completed in 1883 and the second, La Marquise , followed the next year. It was built in the workshop of De Dion, Bouton et Trépardoux on the Rue des Pavillons in Paris as a test vehicle for further vehicle production.

technology

La Marquise

drive

La Marquise , on the other hand, had a standing boiler of its own, lightweight and compact design at the front. Two independently working steam engines, each with a power of 2 HP (according to the calculation method used at the time) each worked on a front wheel via a chain. The rear wheels were used for steering. Like all of the manufacturer's early steam cars, La Marquise is front-wheel drive . The rear track was significantly narrower than the front. The water supply was carried in a rectangular tank in the stern. Before driving, the boiler must be heated for about 45 minutes.

La Marquise was given chassis number 6, the engine numbers are D6 and G6. It is said to have reached a top speed of 55 km / h in the 1990s, although the brakes and chassis were definitely overwhelmed.

Chassis and body

The chassis of steel tube, including wire wheels built the renowned bicycle factory Renard Freres , who had their domicile in the vicinity. The manufacturer used tubular steel chassis well into the 1910s; the later tricycles , quadricycles and the voiturettes vis-à-vis and populaire are built on the same principle. The vehicle was sprung with two semi-elliptic leaf spring packages per axle.

The vehicle was designed for four people, the rear bench was facing backwards (" dos-à-dos " arrangement).

successes

With La Marquise, Georges Bouton was the only participant who actually appeared at the start of the Paris-Versailles reliability run in 1887 . The fact that he was registered in the class of light steam wagons therefore played a subordinate role. What is significant, however, is that he covered 20 miles from Neuilly to Bois de Boulogne and in front of an audience for the first time . It took him 1 hour 14 minutes back and reached up to 60 km / h, the average speed was 25.6 km / h. Advertised as a reliability drive, this event is considered the first ever motorsport event.

The following year, the Count and La Marquise beat his business partner Georges Bouton on a light steam tricycle with an average speed of 28.9 km / h.

Further whereabouts

La Marquise remained in De Dion's possession for a long time and was acquired by an artillery officer named Doriol after the First World War . It is known that the vehicle was exhibited at the Grande Exposition in Grenoble in 1925 , where it received an honorary diploma. Some hardware components were lost during the Second World War . The third owner in 1987 was the British Tim Moore , who received permission from the French state to export the car. He returned La Marquise to its original condition.

Historical meaning

The steam car turned out to be a technical dead end. The dilemma of building the vehicles easily at the same time and still having to carry huge amounts of wood, coal or briquettes could never be solved satisfactorily. When steam cars with gasoline or gas-fired burners appeared at the end of the 19th century, De Dion-Bouton had already made the decision in favor of the gasoline engine. Steam-powered commercial vehicles were still being built until 1914.

The statement in the Guinness Book of Records that "La Marquise" is the oldest automobile still in existence is incorrect. Nicholas Cugnot's steam car from 1769 still exists, as does the Swiss Thury-Nussberg steam car from 1877. Even the statement about the oldest roadworthy car is incorrect . The 1875 Grenville steam car regularly competes in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run . On the other hand, La Marquise is one of the most important automobiles from the early days of motorization and its participation in the reliability drive from Neuilly-sur-Seine to the Bois de Boulogne and back makes it the very first racing car ever.

De Dion, Bouton et Trépardoux emerged in 1883 from the Etablissements Trépardoux et Cie, ingénieurs-constructeurs , which had been founded by the three protagonists de Dion, Bouton and Trépardoux just a year earlier. De Dion-Bouton was only created in 1893 after Trépardoux left the dispute. With some justification, La Marquise can be considered the second built and oldest existing vehicle by this important manufacturer.

Individual evidence

  1. a b gazoline.com: De Dion-Bouton
  2. a b c conceptcarz.com: 1884 De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos
  3. conceptcarz
  4. projocars
  5. a b New York Times August 19, 2007

literature

  • Anthony Bird: De Dion Bouton - First automobile giant ; Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Car marque book No. 6. (1971) Ballantine Books Inc. 101 Fifth Ave., New York, No. 02322-6 (English).
  • Anthony Bird: The single-cylinder De Dion boutons ; Profile Publications No. 25; Profile Publications Ltd., Leatherhead, Surrey, England (English).
  • Jacques Rousseau: Guide de l'Automobile française , Éditions Solar, Paris (1988); ISBN 2-263-01105-6 Hardcover (French).
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present ; Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover) 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 (English).
  • Lord Montague of Beaulieu: Beautiful old automobiles , Gondrom-Verlag Bayreuth; German license edition (1978).
  • Schmid, Ernest and Wiesmann, Martin: Autoveteranen , 1967, Gloria-Verlag. Bergdietikon (Switzerland) (Vol. 4) Benz, Daimler (D), Peugeot, De Dion-Bouton, Popp, Fiat, Weber, Berna, Panhard & Levassor, Larroumet & Lagarde (F), Albion (Scot), Clement-Bayard , Turicum, Dufaux, Rover, Renault, Duhanot (F), Isotta Fraschini, Martini, Darracq, Le Zébre, Adler, Alfa Romeo, Delage, Itala, Dodge, Amilcar, Cadillac

Web links

Commons : De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux La Marquise  - Collection of images, videos and audio files