Bremer Car on display at the National Motor Museum

Motoring first goes on display

26 July 2024

The first British four-wheeled motor car with an internal combustion engine is now on display in the National Motor Museum.

The Bremer Car is on temporary loan from Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow whilst they undertake renovation to their building.

Photographic portrait of Frederick Bremer

Frederick Bremer was born on the 12 July 1872. He built the car in a workshop behind his house between 1892 and 1894. There are reports that he took it out on the roads of his hometown Walthamstow in 1892 one morning for a test drive, around Connaught Road where he lived with his family. He was only 20 at the time, it wasn't intended as a commercial project.

Frederick Bremer with his car - Vestry House Museum

The Bremer car sits alongside the 1895 Knight, another pioneering British motor car, which was originally built with three wheels and is also one of the first purpose-built petrol driven vehicles to run on public roads in Britain.