The first registered car in the entire State

PalmIt wasn't in Madrid, where everything always seems to happen—even today, if we go by the news on the major networks. Nor in Barcelona or Bilbao, which were then apparently much more connected to technical advances and the European sphere. The first automobile registered throughout Spain was the PM-1, in Mallorca. That was in October 1900, 125 years ago.

It wasn't the first motor vehicle that Mallorcans of the time beheld, amazed, in their eyes. It was very shortly before, on April 8, 1897, when a brand-new Clement Bayard, with a French-made De Dion Bouton engine, arrived aboard the steamer that covered the route to Barcelona. It could reach speeds of 20 kilometers per hour—no joke.

The recipient of that first automobile to set foot on Mallorca was, of course, a person of good financial means: Vicenç Joan Ribas, who owned a textile factory. Curiously, this automobile barely made it to the island: its owner decided to leave it locked in a garage, unused.

Another pioneer of motoring in Mallorca was the journalist and businessman Josep Tous Ferrer, who was attentive to all the technical advances of the time. Around 1900, according to chronicler Luis Fábregas, he had six different models of vehicles brought to the island, one of which was exhibited in the Carnival Parade, arousing the greatest possible excitement. At that time, they were known as chariots of fire.

Incidentally, his daughter, Maria Tous, was involved in a curious incident when, traveling in one of those early cars, the driver drove up the Sóller pass at an acceptable speed—eight kilometers per hour—but drove downhill on the Can Penas2 straight to Palma. An outrage for the time. Much to the fright this must have caused his daughter, the businessman booed the driver. The driver justified himself by explaining that he preferred not to brake so as not to warm up the brakes and for fear of having an accident.

In September 1900, horseless carriages became mandatory. And the first in the entire country, dated October 31st of the following year, was also a Clemente, this one belonging to Josep Sureda Fuentes, from the Santa Catalina neighborhood of Palma. He was a retired former ship's engineer, who might have come across the new invention on his voyages. He was, of course, issued license plate PM-1 (for Palma de Mallorca); so all cars in the Balearic Islands bore the initials of the provincial capital until 1997, when it was changed to IB.

Speed limit: 28 kilometers per hour

The state government's own regulations established that anyone wishing to drive a motor vehicle must be duly authorized by the provincial governor, for which they must be examined for their abilities. These exams were subject to a certain degree of discretion. The maximum speed allowed was 28 kilometers per hour. The Tous driver was reportedly fined.

Likewise, cars were required to carry "a horn or bell with a loud ringing tone" to alert unfamiliar pedestrians to their presence. If a motorist at that time had allowed himself to drive without sounding it, Fábregas asserts, "he would have been lynched" by the crowd, and the law enforcement officers themselves would have added to the punishment for the fool.

According to journalist Luis Ripoll, the PM-8 was for a passenger truck in Menorca, which could reach 25 kilometers per hour, a respectable speed at the time. Old photographs show some of the first vehicles circulating in the port of Mahon or in the city's central Plaza del Príncipe. From the 1930s, we know of a motor vehicle parked next to the boats in the port of Ibiza.

By 1907, the car fleet numbered just 32 vehicles. Of course, a good financial position was necessary to afford the then-considerable expenditure. It's not surprising that the owners at the time included noble families, such as Dezcallar, Gual de Torrella, Montaner, and the Marquis de la Torre, among others.

At that time, there was only one person on the islands who owned not one automobile, but two: Manuel Salas Sureda, Joan March's great competitor, who was specifically involved in the oil and gasoline business. One of his cars was the legendary Hispano Suiza, and he was closely associated with the Royal Automobile Club of Mallorca.

With such a small market, it's logical that there was only one garage in Mallorca at the time where you could leave your car, as well as one repair shop. In the King's orchard in Palma—then an open field, not a garden—the brothers Pere and Ramon Gomila set up their garage, later moving it to La Rambla. Ramon Gomila set one of the first speed records: driving his vehicle from Inca to the monastery of Lluc in just fourteen minutes. Later, Jaume Colomer achieved another: from Palma to Palma, passing through Llucmajor, Campos, Felanitx, Manacor, Artà, Santa Margalida, Sa Pobla, and Inca, at a chilling average speed of 65 kilometers per hour. Pedro and Ramón's father, Joan Gomila, was the supplier of those horns, so essential back then, which were more like garden hoses than the car horns of today.

With an apothecary and a priest, just in case.

As for the fuel supply, in the early years of automobile circulation on the islands' roads, drivers had to fetch it in cans. It was Manuel Salas himself who created his own brand of gasoline, Águila, and published a map indicating the pumps available in Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza. The creation of the state-owned Campsa monopoly—an initiative of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship—destroyed what had been the best business venture undertaken by this Mallorcan automotive enthusiast.

The figure of one hundred registered vehicles was not reached until 1911. Incidentally, the PM-100 license plate was never displayed on any car: it had been reserved, perhaps for someone important, but no successful bidder remained. The PM-101 was displayed by a Ford—the Americans had arrived—owned by Josep Zaforteza Orlandis, another aristocrat, of course, because cars weren't exactly cheap. A "good and cheap" car, also a Ford brand, according to the 1912 advertising campaign, cost between 5,700 and 7,800 pesetas. Prices for other brands could soar to 15,000 or 20,000.

Around 1921, The Last Hour advertised a "popular model" at the modest price of 13,500 pesetas. A Chevrolet Torpedo, on the other hand, cost as little as 7,000 pesetas. To give us an idea, an airplane or a seaplane then cost between 8,000 and 9,000 pesetas. A motor vehicle was a sign of boasting: some of the first automobiles in Mallorca were not acquired as a means of transportation – which they also were – but to be displayed in the patios of their owners' houses, as in the case of Titus Alomar at his residence on Sant Feliu Street in Palma. Better than seeing them cruising along the island's dusty roads, making a hell of a noise.

Among the first automobile adventurers in Mallorca were Rafel Blanes and Antoni Amorós, who toured the Artà region. They were often accompanied by an apothecary and a priest. Just in case: lest they need the services of one or the other. There is also evidence of the first daring women who dared to get behind the wheel of those infernal machines: Mercè Borràs, Joana Salvà, Maria Martorell, and Catalina Gelabert, back in the 1920s.

That decade of the 'Roaring Twenties' saw spectacular growth in the automotive industry. In 1919, there were still only 273 motor vehicles on the islands, while by 1930, the number had already risen to 5,092. In other words, they had multiplied eighteenfold in just ten years. Primo de Rivera's dictatorship was keen on public works—it seems to be an obsession of dictators: Franco was also constantly inaugurating reservoirs—and 10,000 new kilometers of roads were built throughout the country. In the islands, we didn't go that far, of course, but some work was done, including the routes from Andratx to Estellencs, from Maó to Fornells, and from Sant Llorenç to Capdepera.

Of course, there were those who saw great potential in this new means of transport for an activity that was just getting started at the time, but which seemed to have a future: tourism. Two partners, Maroto and Vidal, acquired several Hispano Suiza convertibles with the aim of taking visitors to discover the natural beauty of the islands: Miramar, Deià, Puerto de Sóller, Biniaraix, and Fornalutx. This was the beginning of what would become a significant economic activity for the Mallorcans, utilizing two innovations of the time. We haven't stopped since.

Information compiled from texts by Luis Ripoll, Luis Fábregas, Sofía Rotger Salas, Miguel Ángel Casasnovas, Sebastià Serra Busquets, Susana Sueiro Seoane, Jaume Peralta Aparicio, the Great Encyclopedia of Mallorca, and the collective 'Old Photos of Mallorca'.