This beautiful old car is a Doble, Steam powered, built in 1922.
It could do 95 MPH and a sustained 75 MPH. Abner Doble built his first car at 16, he was a perfectionist, so much so that his engines were guaranteed for 100,000 miles! This became his undoing, his cars were beautifully built, but very expensive.
"The Doble company made only 43 Dobles before the company failed in April 1931. The thing that killed the car was that Abner Doble was a perfectionist, not a businessman. He kept making improvements along the way that just drove everybody batty. The cars were extremely well-made, but they were very expensive. There were no gaskets anywhere--everything was machined to fit perfectly."
Jay Leno has one.
"But best of all, it's wonderful to drive. It's like a fast train. You go down the road and it makes no noise at all. This car is quieter and smoother than conventional classics. Don't forget, there's no shifting--no grinding gears. And there's no gas pedal. To change speed, you just turn the throttle wheel, which is made of ebony with a polished, cast German silver spider insert."
Abner Dobles paper, "Steam Motor-vehicles" (1916) is fascinating reading. He sold me!
"In 1930 and 1931 Mr. Doble traveled to New Zealand to reorganize the Price & Co. plant and perfect a steam bus." (This is going to require some further investigation at the library!)