De Dion's little quadricycle (La Marquise) can claim to be the first family car, despite its arcane power source. What makes it different from road-going locomotives dating back to Cugnot's 1770 tractor is its sophisticated boiler, which can be steamed in 45 minutes. It is also compact at only nine feet long and relatively light at 2,100 pounds. But, it has four wheels, seats four, and can be driven by one person - like a modern car.

Writer David Burgess-Wise examined "La Marquise" closely for Automobile Quarterly in 1995. He pointed out that it is both De Dion's prototype quadricycle and the oldest running real car in private hands, so its credentials are unmatched.

"The only older functioning vehicle is the 1875 Grenville," (basically a powered gun carriage), he said. "Amedee Bollee's 'L'Obesissant' of 1872, now in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris, was working in 1923 and presumably could be got working again, but the museum doesn't normally run its exhibits. There's the chassis of the 1830 Gurney Drag in the Glasgow Museum, and the 1854 Bordino steam coach in the Turn museum is apparently complete, but neither is likely to run again."

The mechanical breakthrough, which led to the building of La Marquise, was a new boiler design. The vertical boiler was much shorter and consisted of concentric rings, rather like Russian dolls. The two engines beneath the floor drove close-set back wheels via locomotive cranks. Water was carried in a tank under the seat, coke or coal in a square bunker surrounding the boiler. Coke was withdrawn via drawers at the bottom and poured down a pipe in the center of the boiler onto the fire beneath.

Driving "La Marquise," Bouton participated in the first motor car race in 1887 (he was the only car to show up), averaging 16 MPH for the 20 miles from Paris to Versailles and back and hitting 37 MPH on the straights, according to an observer who timed him. The next year, De Dion in "La Marquise" beat Bouton on a three-wheeler, at an average of 18 MPH.

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