Fiat 24/32 HP Rear-Entrance Tonneau

This 1904 FIAT 24/32 HP is a 'second series' car, from a model built between 1903 and 1905. It has a 6.9-litre four-cylinder engine, a four-speed gearbox and twin-chain final drive. It is one of the more remarkable veteran survivors, with a story that is unusual even by the standards of the period.

It was ordered new by the American couple George and Mabel Agassiz and kept on Cape Cod. After the death of Mabel's brother in 1931 it was stripped of its body and buried. Ted Robertson, later first President of the Sports Car Club of America, dug it up in 1942 and bought it for $50. It then passed through a series of collectors and was with David Uihlein of Milwaukee for 55 years. Uihlein had it restored in the 1990s with a new rear-entrance tonneau body in the style of Quimby, the New Jersey coachbuilder.

The Veteran Car Club of Great Britain's Dating Panel confirmed the 1904 build date in the Netherlands, using the number 745 stamped on the car and the original Type 24/32 ledger. It has been a regular London to Brighton Veteran Car Run entrant. After a sale in 2018 it was restored again and given a body recreated from period photographs and drawings, and it won its class at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court. The history file includes correspondence from the 1950s, photographs of the 1942 recovery, restoration photographs and a copy of the VCC Dating Report.