It seems that the Regent Street Motor Show will be taking vintage to great lengths on November 1st as a steam powered car from the turn of the century will be rolling into the show.
The car is a Toledo and will taking part in the EFG International Concours d’Elegance. Its owner Nick Howell, who is a fish merchant from Cornwall, is hoping to achieve top honours in this event.
For a whole day, the famous London shopping street will be closed to traffic as it showcases vehicles from days gone by up to the latest sports cars.
The Concours is set to feature 100 veteran cars, which will be travelling from London to Brighton the next day.
Mr Howell’s Toledo was made in 1902 by the American Bicycle Company of Toledo. He found it up for sale at a farm auction in the US in 2004.
Should the car win an award, it will not be the first it has received this year. It gained the Chairman’s Trophy at the Pebble Beach concours in the US, before it headed out on a trip from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. This is in honour of the same journey that the car made 112 years ago.
Photographer Oliver Lippincott made the drive in this car over the course of three days. Mr Howell discovered that it was this same car when he found a number of modifications to the vehicle, which included a longer chassis and a bigger water tank than usual.
Speaking about his decision to buy the car, Mr Howell said: “I have rebuilt many veteran and vintage cars in the past but once I’ve got them running properly I tend to get bored with them. So about ten years ago when I started looking for another car to rebuild I chose a steam-powered car as getting one to run smoothly seems to be a never ending challenge!”
Mr Howell kept the car as close to the original as possible, only having to put three small pieces of new wood in to replace pieces that had got charred.
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