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Dawn of Automobile Racing The first event to have been planned was to have been a short trial in Paris organized by "Le Velocipede" in 1887, but only one competitor turned up and so it was abandoned. The first organized event was actually a Reliability Trial run from Paris to Rouen in 1894 over a distance of 126 km. It was organized by a newspaper, Le Petite Journal, and the winning "horseless carriage" had to be "safe, easily controllable and reasonably economical to run." Twenty one entries left Paris on July 22nd, and the first home was Count de Dion in a steam driven De Dion tractor. Unfortunately for De Dion, the jury decided that his car was not a practical road vehicle and instead awarded the prize jointly to the next two leading cars, a Peugeot and a Panhard-Levassor respectively. The winning average speed was an exhilarating 17km/h. Many town races were run in the following years including Paris to Bordeaux and back. This 1895 event, a true race, was won by Emille Levassor. Driving a 2-cylinder, 4-bhp Panhard-Levassor he drove 48 hours 48 minutes virtually non-stop. Because his car only had two seats instead of the required 4 he was denied the prize of 31,000 francs, yet it is his statue that overlooks the finishing line at the Porte Maillot in Paris. Another interesting entrant in this race was the Peugeot of André Michelin which used pneumatic tires. Typically wheels used on other cars were either iron or solid rubber. At first the "air tyre" was ridiculed as impractical and indeed Michelin's car suffered from numerous flats due to the poor condition of the roads at the turn of the century. Panhard along with Mors would dominate racing until the end of the century.
The following years saw an ever increasing search for speed and the easiest path was to increase engine size. Soon 7 and 8 liter engines were common place and even a 16 liter engine was produced. Developments in chassis design, brakes and tires did not maintain pace but in 1901 that changed with the introduction of the 35 h.p. Mercedes. It was the first sports-racing car which featured a fur-cylinder engine with mechanical valves, a "honeycomb" radiator, a steel chassis, pneumatic tires and a magneto ignition. After solving some early reliability problems and coupled with the increase of engine capacity to 9 liters producing 60 h.p., the car became a consistent race winner. Each of the leading manufactures contributed advancements to automobile design. Renault produced a car with shaft drive and a live rear axle. The Gordon Bennett Races
For 1901 the Gordon Bennett Cup race was to be run concurrently with the 'open' Paris-Bordeaux race. In deference to the Cup's international status, their entrants would be dispatched before the open entrants. Napier had planned to contest the Cup on behalf of England but due to the use of French manufactured tires was relegated to the concurrent open race. The Cup turned into an all French affair. In the end the sole survivor in the cup race was Giradot but he was eclipsed by the open Mors of Henri Fournier at an average speed of 53 m.p.h. 1902 saw the first British entrants in the Cup and one a Napier driven by S.F. Edge scored an unexpected victory. The British victory in the Cup race proved a turning point for the series as the French had finally been beaten and could never take the race so lightly again. |
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On a cool and cloudy day, July 2, 1903, starting at seven minute intervals Camille Jenatzy drove the race of his life on a track riddled with curves and bumps. At the wheel of a car that was inferior in terms of horse power he tailored his spectacular driving style accelerating out of curves. A fellow participant marveled: “Throughout the seemingly endless series of curves, Jenatzy kept his foot to the floor. He skidded at breakneck speed around the corners, often only narrowly missing the bordering walls in the process, as was shown by his skid marks that were everywhere to be seen. I could not imagine that he could keep up this daredevil driving style for very long.” By the time the race was over the Gordon Bennett Cup was headed back to Germany. Jenatzy for his efforts was awarded a prize of £8,000.
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