Created to showcase cutting-edge technology, this cabeza tractora de Pegaso surprised the world at the Barcelona Motor Show 30 years ago. Only one of the two prototypes built is still in existence and it belongs to the future Automotive Museum of the Fundación Jorge Jove.
Multimillionaire, adventurer and visionary like few others, this was Ricardo Soriano, second Marquis of IvanRey, who after the Civil War, decided to build a small two-wheeler, the Soriano. This small, elongated and not very aesthetic motorbike was, however, the first to be mass-produced in Spain and of which some 6,000 units were built. One of them is part of the Fundación Jorge Jove and will have its place in the future Galician Automotive Museum.
Three bicycle wheels, a seat and a horsepower caged in a cylinder: this was the first vehicle with an internal combustion engine in history. Its creator, Carl Benz, patented it in 1886. Although the original unit has not survived to the present day, thanks to Mercedes-Benz, which built 100 exact reproductions at the beginning of the 12th century, it is now possible to enjoy this pioneer of the automobile today.
In Chavín, 6 kilometers from Viveiro, a Galician businessman created, in 1905, the first automobile factory in the community. He built car bodies that he then assembled on chassis imported from France. In 2010, and after almost two decades of searching, the Fundación Jorge Jove managed to find a unit from that factory. In a terrible state and semi-abandoned, it was subjected to a long process of handcrafted reconstruction, becoming the jewel of the Galician automotive heritage.
De Dion Bouton de Barro II “La joya de Chavín” by clicking here.
In the middle of a field in Castile, deformed and rusted from decades of neglect, the twisted body of this De Dion Bouton bodied in Galicia in 1924 survived. It may be the only verified unit of the line of cars that came out of the Galician factory.
De Dion Bouton de Barro I “El grial gallego de la automoción” haciendo click aquí.
