1902 De Dietrich

1902 De Dietrich Type 8 “Paris-Vienna” Rear-Entrance Tonneau

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | June 27, 2014

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

In Alsace, De Dietrich is more than just a short-lived, early car manufacturer. It’s an old family that owned lots of land and had lots of titles. They entered industry in the 1840s and in 1897 they sold their first automobiles. Strangely, as beautiful and well-engineered as these cars were, the De Dietrich marque would be gone after 1905 as the cars were then sold as Lorraine-Dietrichs.

This particular car has an interesting history – it was discovered during WWII when a German bomb blew apart the barn that this thing had been stored in since 1912. This model is identical to those that De Dietrich entered in the 1902 Paris-Vienna race. It uses a 4.1-liter straight-four that puts out 16 horsepower. It can power this fairly large car up to speeds of 55 mph on level roads.

This car was bought new by a member of the Guinness brewing family. He sold it and it was parked in 1912. In the 1940s, after it was unearthed by the aforementioned German explosive, the car was rescued from outdoor deterioration and a restoration was started in 1946. It has had a few owners since (and spent time in a museum) and a second restoration. This thing is beautiful. I wish I had the $1,300,000-$1,400,000 necessary to acquire it. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $1,700,349.