• Formerly owned by a son of Adler's founder • In the previous ownership from 1986 • Purchased privately in 2002 Heinrich Kleyer's Frankfurt-based Adler started out in the 19th Century as a bicycle importer and manufacturer, turning later to the production of motorcycles, cars and the typewriters with which its name is most commonly associated today.

A highly respected firm in its native Germany, Adler was already manufacturing automobile components, supplying both Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, when it introduced its first car - a Renault-influenced, De Dion-powered voiturette - in 1900.

Shaft drive was an advanced feature, which would be used on all subsequent Adler motor cars, while tiller gave way to wheel steering in 1901.

The following year the company began making its own single- and twin-cylinder engines, though by 1910 the range was powered exclusively by fours.

By this time designer Edmund Rumpler had departed, but not before he had bequeathed Adler the first German car ...