A record breaking Oeuf de Pâques

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There is perhaps no better fitting car today than the Serpollet brothers 1902 ‘Oeuf de Pâques’ or ‘Easter Egg’ land speed record car seen here. Like most Easter eggs it coped well with boiling water - Serpollet’s vehicle was steam-powered.

It came about when Léon Serpollet, together with his brother Henri started experimenting with the steam engines used in the family tools factory in the 1880s. They signed a contract with Peugeot but when Peugeot turned to the combustion engine instead, they decided to draw their own plan. And certainly not without success. The brothers soon managed to develop the so-called flash tube boiler, which speeded up pressurizing and was thus rapidly able to turn a small quantity of water into steam and provide a continual supply to the engine.

They teamed up with American mogul Frank Gardner at the turn of the century and together decided that the next step was to prove their product in motorsports. After a victory in the 1899 Nice-Draguignan-Nice race, the Serpollets also won the Rothschild Cup on a one-kilometre speed test run on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, reaching 100.55km/h and just not enough to beat the record holder Camille Jenatzy’s ‘La Jamais Contente’. Naturally, they wanted to beat that – and did. That’s where the Oeuf de Pâques comes in the picture – named not just so because of its aerodynamic shape, but also as the race was to be held on April 13th in 1902. We’re not sure if that was Easter that year but it must have been close. Smashing the record at 120.805 km/h that day the car made history. Only shortly though as the record was beaten again just four months later.

We understand a replica of the Easter Egg racer can be seen in the Bexhill Motor Museum (it was raced there also). The whereabouts of the original Oeuf de Pâques are unknown – to us at least.

Words by Jeroen Booij. Picture and info lautomobileancienne.com.

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