1896 Lutzmann Victoria

This is a photograph that I took amidst road works on the Crescent, part of the A6 in Salford, during the Lancashire Automobile Club’s Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run in June 1973.

It's an 1896 Lutzmann Victoria., one of two such cars taking part in the run, and this one was entered by the St. Annes Motor Museum. A note in the programme of the event covered both cars and this is what it said:

1.     St Annes Motor Museum, St. Annes, Lancashire.

        (Driver - Mr. N.E.J. Bradshaw)

        1896 Lutzmann Victoria, 4 h.p.

2.     Mr Bernard W. Garrett, Hurst Green, Oxted, Surrey.

        1896 Lutzmann Victoria, 4 h.p.

These two rare examples of the single-cylinder (2,370 c.c.) Lutzmann "gentleman's carriage" are the only known models still in running order to survive from the Lutzmann automobile works at Dessau in what is now East Germany. Which is the elder brother is a fine point of discrimination not easily decided, but both have common link in one-time ownership. It is known that both were imported into this country by a Mr. Cousons (or Koosens) of Southsea in Hampshire, who must have been most impressed by the reports of their performance on the Kaiser's roads - long before Hitler's autobahns. The fact that they are still in road-worthy order despite their great age and years of neglect is certainly most impressive by present-day manufacturing standards. Without making an issue of it, Mr. Garrett has an authority from the Veteran Car Club dated November 1956 stating that his entry is the earliest known Lutzmann. On the other hand, Mr. Nigel Bradshaw thinks that his model was the first brought into this country. It matters little. The splendid old Lutzmann machines, which incidentally are the great grandfathers of the present Opel car, are certainly the oldest veterans ever to take part in the Manchester - Blackpool Run. Both were entries last year, but brake trouble forced Mr. Garrett to be a non-starter.