1906 De Dion-Bouton 8 hp Type "AL" Owned by John & Lyn Hughes

This car was probably bought new by Mr A.B.S. White, a stockbroker who had residences in Milner St, North Sydney, Leura, and "Tahlee" on Port Stephens.

He sold the vehicle to Mr James W.B. Barden (who also lived in North Sydney) in 1908 when he replaced it with a Metallurgique. The De Dion received registration number 536 in 1909, and Mr Barden sold it for 200 pounds to Mr Robert J. Saunders who lived at Smithtown near Kempsey in 1910.

Mr Saunders sold it to a neighbour named Ike Jones in about 1912, and he inturn sold it to another neighbour named Notley in about 1915. By 1918 the car had been "retired'.

An early member of our club named Ed Yabsley, who lived at Kempsey bought the little De Dion in about 1958, and he had restored it in time to take it on the 1962 Blue Mountains Tour.

Ed, his wife Mary, and their young family used the car on several Blue Mountains and Newcastle Tours between 1962 and 1965, and they used it again on the 1980 Blue Mountains Tour. Ed passed away several years ago, and I purchased the car from his wife early 2001.

This vehicle had been very well looked after during the Yabsley family's period of ownership. In order to make it roadworthy once again after 21 years of inactivity it only required new king pin bushes, new stub-axles, two new shackle pins, a new condenser, and a new set of 710 x 90 tyres.

My wife Lyn and I used it on the recent 1 & 2 cylinder tour at Goulburn and it performed faultlessly, indicating it's excellence of design and construction, and the quality of it's restoration all those years ago.

In memory of it's previous owner, we call our De Dion - "Ed", and we love it.