#A028 by Amsterdam SOLVED: 1913 Renault Victoria Rothschild DG "Queen of Egypt"

[Amsterdam]

For one point: Make, name and year, who is the coachbuilder?, and for who and what event was it built?
Extra point for its two nicknames.

[Amsterdam]

Do the Experts know?

[max_pershin]

De Dion Bouton

[Tackitt]

Could this be an early Renault AG? Also known as theTaxi de la Marnes (Not so named until after WWI when the French army requisitioned the entire fleet to move troops into the First Battle of the Marne in September, 1914). First ordered in 1905 by a car rental company to use the new invention, the taximeter.

Or, am I completely wrong. 

[Tackitt]

As for the coachbuilder, so far, I would have to say Labourdette.

[Amsterdam]

De Dion Bouton

No

[Amsterdam]

Could this be an early Renault AG? Also known as theTaxi de la Marnes (Not so named until after WWI when the French army requisitioned the entire fleet to move troops into the First Battle of the Marne in September, 1914). First ordered in 1905 by a car rental company to use the new invention, the taximeter.

Or, am I completely wrong. 

Yes it is a Renault, but not an AG and although this may look like a Marne Taxi this one is not. It is a special built, but not by Labourdette I'm affraid.

I lock it for you for 48 hours to come up with the correct answer

[Tackitt]

1908 Renault AX with a Kellner body?

[Amsterdam]

 

[Tackitt]

None of it?

[Tackitt]

Honestly, I don't know if I am getting any closer. I tend to do this till I am completely burned out from looking.
I think:
The Renault model is a CB. It was built in either 1908 or 09 by J. M. Quinby & Company. It was known as a tulip phaeton or a Roi des Belges. It was first ordered by  King Leopold II of Belgium, the Belgian Monarch who had a much celebrated affair with the notorious Parisian dancer and post card pin-up Cléo de Mérode.
I do not yet have an event per se unless it was to celebrate handing over the ownership of the Congo to the Belgian government for 120,000,000 big ones.

[Amsterdam]

 

Storywise you are sort off looking in the right direction, but you still haven't found what I'm looking for. so far the only answer that is correct is that it is a Renault.

It is a unique one off
It was a special built ordered by a goverment as a ceremonial vehicle, but it was not Belgium.
The name of this goverments country is also in one of the nicknames it has.

Here are some more pictures of the restoration and a full colour of the result.

[Tackitt]

(whew) I found it.

1913 Renault Victoria Rothschild DG

Ordered by the Egyptian government for the opening ceremony of the Eqyptian Parliament in Cairo.
The coachbuilder, of course, was etablissements Rothschild.

Are the nicknames "Queen of Egypt" and "la caverne d'Ali Baba"?

[Tackitt]

sorry i needed so many hints.

[Amsterdam]

 

Yes!!! you have found the one! well done!

About the nicknames. Queen of Egypt is for sure correct. I dont know the Ali Baba part.
The second one is much the same as the first. Just "Beauty Queen"
so I am not bottering you any longer with this
Two well deserved points for you.

This is the story behind the car


From the banks of the Nile to vintage car catwalks, this is the fantastic story, part high craft part archaeology, of a 1913 Renault DG Victoria Rothschild as told by the restoration specialists at Renault's Histoire & Collection department.

But though intact, the Renault DG had suffered from the passing of time

The story began in the 90s when a Renault correspondent in Egypt called Renault's Histoire & Collection department to tell them he had just discovered an exceptional DG model from 1913. The department, responsible for collecting and maintaining the brand's historic models, got straight down to work, pulling out all the stops to acquire and repatriate this marvelous find. The DG model in question is unique. It was ordered by the Egyptian government as a ceremonial vehicle for the inauguration of the Cairo Parliament. The body was customized by Etablissements Rothschild and tuned so that the driver could keep the speed of a march without having to use the clutch.

Major restoration work

H&C experts started major restoration work
A real challenge

For the Histoire & Collection department, headed by Hugues Portron, these salvage missions are an everyday occurrence. But the DG operation was special. "People regularly talk about sleeping beauties found hidden in barns," says Hugues Portron. "But this beauty was slumbering under a dune."



"One day a huge container arrived from Egypt," an ex-H&C worker tells us. "We were astounded when we opened it and saw that the car was totally complete! Not a screw missing, like it was mummified – par for the course in Egypt, I suppose!" But though intact, the Renault DG had suffered from the passing of time, and so H&C experts started major restoration work. 

"Renovating an old car requires the services of particular trades," says Hugues Portron. " For the hood of the DG, a shoemaker friend helped us find a tanner able to provide us with top-quality skins several millimeters thick. For the fabric, Renaults' Design department helped us find a supplier who could produce 50 meters of wool sheet in a specific shade of blue. And in the waste-not-want-not spirit, leftovers from this fabric were used to renovate two of the taxis involved in the Marne evacuation of World War One.

Up on the catwalk


Beauty queen

The renovated DG returned to the public eye in its new career as a beauty queen. The staff at Histoire & Collection took on the role of impresarios, as one of them remembers: "After an appearance at the Rétromobile show in Paris, the beauty was invited to the very select Pebble Beach festival in California. But instead, the DG did the catwalk in the Vuitton beauty contest at the Bagatelle gardens in the Bois de Boulogne. And she would have taken top prize if it weren't for an exhaust pipe screw that looked too new!"   

Renault joins the big league 

It's sure. This DG Renault is the queen of Egypt!


"With its work on the Egyptian (DG), Renault has joined the big league," a famous restorer of vintage vehicles once said. This complement went straight to the heart of the Histoire & Collection team, who keep a close watch over their Egyptian queen. The DG is still in perfect shape and continues to make appearances, like the 650 other models in the Renault collection. From civilian to military to sporting vehicles, the power output of the vehicles in the collection ranges from 1.75 hp to 1,200 hp! But the DG is the only model to have walked in the footsteps of Cleopatra.

[Tackitt]

I have to confess, the tipoff actually came when I stumbled onto a 1914 Victoria that had made the concours rounds a couple of years ago. It was so similar that I started using "Victoria" in my searches. Voila!

Since finding Autopuzzles, I have been learning more about many areas of "autodom" that I have shamefully ignored and still call myself a car guy. Especially, in the pre-WWI era where the cars were so elegant and my knowledge has been so lacking.

Some fun!