Car No.

1237 Count Albert De Dion commissioned Messrs Bouton and Trépardoux, brothers-in-law and jobbing engineers, to build light steam carriages for him as early as 1882.

In 1895 attention was switched to the fashionable new internal combustion engine and De Dion Bouton et Cie were marketing a diminutive petrol engined tricycle.

These early tricycles were powered by Bouton's new, high speed, single cylinder, vertical engine which revved at almost twice the speed of the contemporary Daimlers.

By 1899 the company was marketing a 31/2 HP voiturette, an all new generation of four wheel motor car with rear mounted engine driving through a system of gears to the rear wheels.

The engine had a bore and stroke of 80 x 80mm, displacing 402cc.

The carburettor was De Dion's own and lubrication was by splash.

Cooling was via a tubular radiator mounted at the front and using a centrifugal pump.

The gearbox was simplicity itself featuring constant mesh gears with separate expanding clutches...