1904 Mobile 6hp Two-seater

• Rare survivor of a short-lived make
• Single-cylinder De Dion-Bouton engine
• Known ownership history
• An older restoration
• Present family ownership since the 1950s
• Museum displayed for many years

A rare survivor of an obscure and short-lived Birmingham make (Mobile was in existence for only a few years: 1903 to 1907), this example was originally owned by one Captain Perfect, a Royal Navy officer who served in WWI. Captain Perfect was originally from England and his wife was from just outside Dublin. They moved to Warrenpoint, County Down, Ireland (this was pre-partition, County Down became part of Northern Ireland following Irish independence.)

At some time in the 1920s the car was passed on to a firm of millwrights, Bailey Brothers, based in Bessbrook outside Newry in County Armagh. By this time the Mobile would have been 20 years old, obsolete and of little value. Bailey's later jacked up the car's rear and used the engine as a power source. By the early 1950s the car was derelict. The vendor's father, John Fisher, working in the family firm in Newry, discovered the Mobile in one of Bailey's sheds and offered to purchase it from the then very elderly Mr Bailey. Mr Bailey's response was to say he had paid nothing for the car and as a Quaker he could not profit from its sale: the vendor's father could have the car for free if he wanted it.

The foreman of Fisher's lorry garage, Ernest Revels, had worked as a pit mechanic for Bentley when they were racing on the Grand Prix circuit, and it was he who carried out much of the restoration work on the Mobile's engine and transmission. The vendor's father took the car out frequently and would, on dry days, drive the eight miles to his Newry office, reaching 25mph on the open road.

In July 1957 the Mobile was dated by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain, the engine number '16109' indicating a 1904 year of construction, though the car was initially registered around August 1905 (see correspondence on file).

On 18th November 1968 the Mobile was delivered into the care of the then Ulster Transport Museum. At that time the car was treated to a certain amount of restoration work, with the ignition system restored to original specification. The Mobile has remained in the museum's care since then. It was on public display for many years before being placed in storage, and is now back in the care of the Fisher family.