Quiz Archive

What is it? # 72 (UPDATE)

This not earlier published photo found at a Dutch fleamarket(!) by Robert Rozeman, caused romantic mind travelling with several readers. They dreamed about a 1907 Cadillac once owned by the King of Egypt. They entered New-York Paris in a German 1908 Protos. And crossed the Humbold River with a 1902 Cadillac "Old Pacific".... ("which in fact was a Packard that drove across the US 100 years ago; Kit Foster)
Endurance rally organiser John Brown (Hero.org.uk) came up with the 100% correct and well written answer: "I have not seen this great photo before, but it was almost certainly taken during the 1907 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, probably (to judge from the peasants' cap, belted smock and boots) in Russia - I would guess Siberia. The car is one of the two De Dions which successfully completed the event, but I cannot tell you which one, as I do not recognise either the man in the foreground or the gentleman behind in the bowler hat. I suspect that the "bridge" may in fact be a ferry ramp, as the expanse of water behind looks a bit big for a bridge, and there are sizeable vessels passing." Thank you John! However John probably has his mindset already focussed too much on the next 'Le Jog' or so, thus he clocked in half a day late... Next time check your Heuers before sending out such correct wordings. Congratulations to winner Bob Rampton who simply wrote ... and within the given time:"...I believe this is one of the De Dion-Bouton entrants in the Peking-Paris rally of 1907, somewhere in Siberia." 100 % correct. One last question. Anyone who can tell us which of the two De Dions this is? In view of this competitor jan Stellingwerff added: ""Driver can be Victor Colignon and mechanic Jean Bizac or driver Godard. See (carnet.co.uk) this Peking-Paris gallery. (collection Robert Rozeman) EARLIER TEXT:
It is not a truck or pick-up. Presumably the angle of view will give none or hardly any clue to what kind of car it is. So the answer should come from your memory and/or imagination. We'll give some leads. The photo was taken years before WW I . Click here to get a panoramic view on the situation. Try to think up where this desolate bridge can be. What are these 'officials' doing there? What's is the overloaded 'no-truck' doing here? Questions, questions to fill a boring evening and a good reason to check the books on your dust collecting shelves. We will judge by 1. the make of car 2. the year 3. the location 4. the reason why they are here. In order to win the infamous PreWarCar T-shirt send your answer to \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it before the 28th of July.

Friday, 25 July 2003