What do you say to your wife before jumping onboard a car like this? I’ll be back? Because you might not.
The French company Darracq made their first automobile in 1900, powered by a 6.5 horsepower 785 cc engine. Since that didn’t become a hit, Alexandre Darracq teamed up with a guy named Adam Opel, and by 1903, the company offered four engine sizes ranging from the 1.1 liter all the way up to a 3.8 four cylinder.
Business went so well that in 1905, Darracq entered the British market as well, and to get some publicity, they built their first V8, a mighty 25.4 liter engine producing about 200 horsepower and god knows how much torque.
On public roads, it clocked 109.65 mph before getting shipped to America in 1906. At Daytona Beach, it reached a record 122.5 mph. 109 years later, she made an impressive appearance in front of the Goodwood crowd, driven by crazy person Mark Walker.
That’s a decent radiator right there.
Photo credit: Robert Stokes