This is the only coal powered car that's still running

One of the joys of the Festival of Speed is the sheer range of models on show, all of which are a piece of history that tells the story of the development of the motor car. This 1893 Salvesen steam car is one of the oldest machines in attendance, hailing from a time when the car was a rare and baffling sight. It’s owned by Duncan Pittaway, and as we took a ride onboard, he told the history of his remarkable machine.

It's hard to imagine a world without cars now, but in the late nineteenth century they were an alien sight. “In the UK,” Pittaway explained, “there were virtually no cars prior to November 1896. Not just that they were expensive, which they were, but all the roads were private toll roads because there was no national road network. In today’s money, to take a horse drawn carriage along the road was the equivalent of £5 pounds and £5,000 pounds for a steam carriage, so very, very few people had them.”

Moreover, restrictive laws prohibited the carriages from going more than 2mph in town and 4mph in the countryside. “You had to have a man walking in front with a red flag, whereas if you had a horse drawn carriage, you could shoot down the road like an idiot.”

The stage was set for the boom of the car, however, when the speed limit was upped to 14mph and toll charges were removed, in November 1896. It’s an event commemorated each year with the London to Brighton Run.

“This car is very important because it's from that era before all that happened, which is why so few of them were built and so few have survived. This is the only coal fired car that's still running, and I think there's only four or five in the world.”

Pittaway’s deep-rooted love for the Salvesen is plain to see. It’s a car that’s treasured not only for its historical significance, but for personal connections, too.

“My father had Victorian cars when I was growing up. When you're 17 or 18, you don't want to do what your dad does because it's really uncool. So, I raced motorcycles and I did anything but go on Victorian cars, but it's in there somehow. When I told my father I was going buy [the Salvesen], it was the first time he got all excited because he said ‘it was about time you buy a proper car, none of this modern rubbish.’”

Before it came into his care in 2018, the Salvesen had only had three prior owners in its 131-year history. It was built in 1893 by Henry Salvesen, who used it until 1896. “Then he bought a Daimler and they pushed it to the back of the shed.” The car stayed in Scotland until the mid-1920s when Henry died, and his family gave it away.

“There was a funny chap called John Sword who ran a crisp factory in Glasgow. He was just obsessed with old cars, and he didn't drive any of them, he just hoarded them. He did because a lot of them would have been scrapped, I think.” Sword didn’t run the car at all, and he died in the early 1960s.

“In 1963, there was a massive sale where they auctioned off all his cars. It was probably the first classic car sale in the UK. The estimate [for the Salvesen] was £200-£300 and it sold for £2,900. It was bought by a farmer in Norfolk called George Milligan, who had a fabulous collection of cars. He bought it because he loved it, but didn't use it at all.”

So, the steam car remained dormant from 1896 when Henry switched it off, all the way through to the early 21^st century.

“In 2004, when George died, Bonhams|Cars sold the car again as part of the Milligan collection, and a friend of mine [John Brydon] bought it for that sale. I fell in love with the car then because I was at the sale and thought it was the most remarkable thing.” Brydon breathed new life into the car, finally running it again and partaking in every London to Brighton Run.

“Sadly, [John] was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few years ago, and he put it back into auction. I couldn't believe it when I saw the advert. I hadn't mentioned it to John and John didn't mention it to me, but I went to Bonhams, bought it for sale in 2018 the night before the London to Brighton Run and did that the next day – it was a bit tired, but we got there! It's been an adventure ever since. Every time we use it, it becomes an adventure.

“People describe me as a collector, but I'm not, because everything I've got is cars which I specifically sought out that are unique. The De Dion-Bouton is lovely, but there's lots of them. If I had a De Dion-Bouton I could sell it and buy another one, but I can't buy another one of these.

“It isn’t a London to Brighton car, it isn’t a steam-powered car, it’s this car. It [would be] difficult to part with something when it's so special to you.”

Taking the Salvesen for a spin is by no means an easy task. It requires a crew of at least two – one to steer, as Pittaway was doing while he chatted, and someone to manage the coal, here done by his friend, Steve. “Steve is the most important man in the dock. In steam train days, the man who shovelled the coal was paid more than the one driving because running the boiler was a more skilled job. I really enjoy actually trying to manage the steam. It's like driving an ocean liner.”

And even this glorious reminder of the past is looking towards a greener future of its own. “We’re running on Ecoal, a synthetic coal made from olive stones, molasses, and coffee grindings. Welsh coal is the best, but it's not available anymore. I thought, there must be an alternative to the other options out there, so we've been trying it out and it works really well. It takes a bit longer to get up steam, but once you go, it makes no difference. I was disappointed, though, because I thought, made out of coffee grindings and olive stones, that it might smell like a pizzeria! But it doesn't, it just sort of smells like steam.”

Environmentally clean it may be aspiring to be, but it’s messy work manning the machine; “it requires a lot of oil, you get very dirty! I love doing the London to Brighton Run [but] you don't travel [there] in leather-button luxury. It normally takes eight or nine hours to do 60 miles because you have to stop to fill up the water. We use about 400 gallons of water to do 60 miles and about half a tonne of coal. It's like, you work your passage to get there and I really enjoy that challenge.”

One aspect which shines through about the Salvesen is the sense of community with which it brings, be that between those operating the running of the car, or the connections it makes with the people who witness it.

“I'm very lucky,” said Pittaway, “I race at Goodwood a lot. Racing is brilliant, but it's quite antisocial. What’s so lovely about this car is my whole family is involved. When we took six people down to Brighton last year, somebody was manning the water, somebody was doing the coal, somebody was doing the brakes, somebody was doing the steering; it's a really sociable thing.”

As we lapped around the Brooklands paddock at the Festival of Speed, everyone nearby diverted their attention towards us, be that from the Red Bull celebration or the Aston Martin Valkyrie brashly parked nearby the Cartier Lawn – we even heard someone say it was their new favourite thing that they’d seen. All at once, everyone became enamoured with the Wagonette, its bright yellow detailing and its charming theatrics.

“You get a tremendous response from the public. People smile and wave and are much more welcoming of an old car than they are a modern supercar.” We took a pause next to the Valkyrie, and if there was ever an image which encapsulated what the Festival of Speed is all about, it would be the sight of this pioneering 1890s machine standing proud next to the juggernaut it would evolve into over 100 years on.

Pittaway is keen to use the Salvesen to encourage people to connect with the past. “Try and forget everything you know about cars and put yourself back in [the 1890s], and seeing this for the first time. It must have been terrifying, probably astonishing. But now, I think that's the magic of running old cars – putting yourself back at a time when nobody knew any different.

“[The Festival of Speed does] it so well by introducing people, not just by static displays, but to go and get this thing fired up, make funny noises, to blow the whistle and the steam out everywhere and hear it hissing and wheezing. It's serious, but it's a show, and it's about entertaining people in a way where you can introduce them.”

The Salvesen Steam Wagonette certainly does just that. We’re loving seeing it here, and the reactions it stirs from the crowds. It’s special having one of the very first cars here, to celebrate it, too, as the starting point for all the other glorious machines that came.  

The 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed is underway, and you can watch every moment of the action on our live stream right here on GRR!

Photography by Fin Williams and Pete Summers.