Special Car, auto, cars, vehicles

The vehicle pegged as the world's oldest surviving Rolls-Royce, a 1904 10hp Two-Seater, was recently sold by Bonhams auction house for 3,521,500 pounds (or $7,117,856 at the current conversion rate), resulting in the breaking of two auction world records: highest price paid at for a Rolls-Royce and highest price paid for a pre-1905 automobile.

First displayed at the Paris Auto Salon in Autumn 1904, the Rolls-Royce was then displayed the following February at London's Olympia show -- the same location where it sold at auction 102 years later. Having passed through the hands of a number of owners through the years, the car was treated to a four-year-long restoration in the mid-1950s and more recently, has stayed with the same owner since 1978. It is currently said to be in fine running order, with routine maintenance being performed to keep it on the road.

We already told you that Bonhams and Butterfields will be auctioning off what is thought to be the world's oldest Cadillac, built in 1903, at its Quail Lodge event this Friday in Carmel Valley, California. Now the auction company has announced that the world's oldest existing Rolls-Royce will be present as well.

The 10-horsepower 1904 Rolls-Royce seats two people and was built the very same year the U.K.-based luxury automaker was founded. This particular car was shown at the 1904 Paris Auto Salon and at the London Olympia Show early the following year. Subsequently the Rolls passed through three different owners in its 103-year lifetime, the most recent of which has owned the car for 30 years. It was restored once in the 1950s.