A SHORT ACCOUNT OF SOME FAMOUS EUROPEAN ROAD RACES AND TRIALS

In December, 1893, Le Petit Journal of Paris proposed a trial of self-propelled road-vehicles, to end with a run from Paris to Rouen. The distance was 133 kilometres and the first car to arrive at Rouen was a steam-tractor built by De Dion, Bouton et Cie, to-day perhaps the largest manufacturers of the ordinary gasoline-motor. A Peugot carriage, fitted with a Daimler engine, followed next, and then a Panhard. There were something like a hundred entries for this trial, of which one was from England and three from Germany, but most of them did not survive the run.

On the 11th of June, 1895, was started the now historic Paris-Bordeaux race. Sixteen gasoline and half a dozen steam cars started from the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, for the journey to Bordeaux and back. It was a Panhard-Levassor that arrived back in Paris first, but the prize was given to a Peugot which carried four passengers, whereas the Panhard carried but two.

In the following year the new locomotion was evidently believed to have come to stay, for the first journal devoted to the industry and sport was founded in Paris, under the name of La Locomotion Automobile, soon to be followed by another called La France Automobile.

In 1896 was held the Paris-Marseilles race, divided into five stages for the outward journey, and five stages for the homeward. Twenty-four gasoline-cars started, and three propelled by steam, and there were five gasoline-tricycles. Bolée's tandem tricycle was the sensation during the first stage, averaging twenty miles an hour. The itinerary out and back, of something like sixteen hundred kilometres, was covered first by a Panhard-Levassor, in sixty-seven hours, forty-two minutes, and fifty-eight seconds. The average speed of the winner was something like twenty-two kilometres an hour.

In England a motor-car run was organized from London to Brighton in 1896, including many of the vehicles which had started in the Paris-Marseilles race in France. The first vehicles to arrive in Brighton were the two Bolée tricycles; a Duryea was third, and a Panhard fourth.

In 1897 there was a race in France, on a course laid out between Marseilles, Nice, and La Turbie. The struggle was principally between the Comte Chasseloup-Laubat in a steam-car, and M. Lemaitre in a Panhard, with a victory for the former, showing at least that there were possibilities in the steam-car which gasoline had not entirely surpassed.

Pneumatic tires were used on the Paris-Bordeaux race in 1895, but solid tires were used on the winning cars in 1894, 1895, and 1896.

Another affair which came off in 1897 was a race from Paris to Dieppe, organized by two Paris newspapers, the Figaro and Les Sports.

The event was won by a three-wheeled Bolée, with a De Dion second, and a six-horse-power Panhard third.

In 1898 there took place the Paris-Amsterdam race. It was won by a Panhard, driven by Charron, and the distance was approximately a thousand miles, something like sixteen hundred kilometres.

The "Tour de France" was organized by the Matin in 1898. The distance was practically two thousand kilometres. Panhards won the first, second, third, and fourth places, though they were severely pressed by Mors.

The first Gordon-Bennett cup race was held in 1900, between Paris and Lyons. The distance was not great, but the trial was in a measure under general road conditions, though it took on all the aspects of a race. It was won by Charron in a Panhard.

In 1901 the Gordon-Bennett race was run from Paris to Bordeaux, perhaps the most ideal course in all the world for such an event. It was won by Girardot in a forty-horse Panhard.

The Paris-Berlin race came in the same year, with Fournier as winner, in a Mors designed by Brazier.

In 1902 the Gordon-Bennett formed a part of the Paris-Vienna itinerary, the finish being at Innsbruck in the Tyrol. De Knyff in a Panhard had victory well within his grasp when, by a misfortune in the parting of his transmission gear, he was beaten by Edge in the English Napier. Luck had something to do with it, of course, but Edge was a capable and experienced driver and made the most of each and every opportunity.

Through to Vienna the race was won by Farman in a seventy-horse-power Panhard, though Marcel Renault in a Renault "Voiture Legere" was first to arrive.

It was in 1901 that the famous Mercédès first met with road victories. A thirty-five-horse power Mercédès won the Nice-Salon-Nice event in the south of France, and again in the following year the Nice-La Turbie event.

In the Circuit des Ardennes event in 1902, Jarrot, in a seventy-horse Panhard, and Gabriel in a Mors, were practically tied until the last round, when Jarrot finally won, having made the entire distance (approximately 450 kilometres) at an average speed of fifty-four and a half miles per hour. There were no controles.

In 1903 the Gordon-Bennett cup race was held in Ireland, over a course of 368 miles, twice around a figure-eight track. Germany won with a Mercédès with Jenatzy at the wheel, with De Knyff in a Panhard only ten minutes behind.

In 1903 was undertaken the disastrous Paris-Madrid road race. Between Versailles and Bordeaux the accidents were so numerous and terrible, due principally to reckless driving, that the affair was abandoned at Bordeaux. Gabriel in a Mors car made the astonishing average of sixty-two and a half miles per hour, hence may be considered the winner as far as Bordeaux.

In 1904 the Gordon-Bennett race was run over the Taunus course in Germany, with Thèry the winner in a Richard-Brazier car.

In 1905 Thèry again won on the Circuit d'Auvergne in the same make of car, making a sensational victory which—to the French at least—has apparently assured the automobile supremacy to France for all time.

The 1906 event was the Grand Prix of the Automobile Club de France on the Circuit de la Sarthe. The astonishing victories of the Renault car driven by Szisz, which made the round of 680 kilometres in two days at the average rate of speed of 108 kilometres an hour, has elated all connected with the French automobile industry. It was a victory for removable rims also, as had Szisz not been able to replace his tattered tires almost instanteously with others already blown up, he would certainly have been overtaken by one or more of the Brazier cars, which suffered greatly from tire troubles.

In 1906 another event was organized in France by the Matin. It was hardly in the nature of a race, but a trial of over six thousand kilometres, an extended tour de France.

Forty-two automobiles of all ranks left the Place de la Concorde at Paris on the 2d of August, and thirty-three arrived at Paris on the 28th of the same month, twenty of them without penalization of any sort. No such reliability trial was ever held previously, and it showed that the worth of the comparatively tiny eight and ten horse machines for the work was quite as great as that of the forty and sixty horse monsters.

The following tables show plainly the value of this great trial.

COUPE DU MATIN

LIST OF AUTOMOBILES ENGAGED

CLASS "ROUES" (SPRING WHEELS AND ANTI-SKIDS)

1.Antidérapant Néron de Deitrich
2." Vulcain I. de Dion-Bouton
3." Vulcain II. Corre
33.Roues Élastiques Soleil Rochet-Schneider
38." Garchey I. de Dion-Bouton
39." Garchey II. Mieusset
42." E. L. Delauney-Belleville

CLASS ENDURANCE

1st Category
Motocyclettes, vitesse maxima, 25 kilomètres à l'heure

35.Motocyclette Lurquin-Coudert
64." Albatross (Motor Buchet)
67." René Gillet

2d Category
Tri-cars, vitesse maxima, 25 kilomètres à l'heure

4.Mototri Contal I.
5.Mototri Contal II.

3d Category
Voiturette 1 cylindre, alésage maximum 110 millimètres

6.Fouillaron
8.De Dion-Bouton et Cie I.
9.Darracq et Cie
12.De Dion-Bouton et Cie II.
18.Cottereau I.
25.Voiturette Roy
30.Voiturette G. R. A. R.
34.Voiturette Darracq II.
47.Voiturette Lacoste & Battmann I.
48.Voiturette Lacoste & Battmann II.
49.Voiturette Lacoste & Battmann III.
59.Voiturette Alcyon

4th Category
Voitures 2 cylindres, alésage maximum 130 millimètres, ou 4 cylindres, alésage maximum 85 millimètres

10. Darracq II.
11. Darracq
13. De Dion-Bouton et Cie III.
15. D. Thuault
19. Cottereau II.
20. Cottereau III.
21. Cottereau IV.
22. Kallista I.
23. Kallista II.
44. Panhard et Levassor
46. Corre
51. X.

5th Category
Voitures 4 cylindres, alésage maximum 105 millimètres

7. C. V. R. I.
16. De Dion-Bouton et Cie IV.
17. De Dion-Bouton et Cie V.
28. Renault Frères
29. C. I. A.
31. C. V. R. II.
43. Darracq V.
50. Herald
57. Panhard
60. De Dion-Bouton et Cie VI.
61. Bayard Clèment I.
65. Corre
66. Berliet

6th Category
Voitures 4 cylindres, alésage maximum 126 millimètres

14. Mercédès I.
24. Scrive
26. Pilain I.
27. Pilain II.
32. C. V. R. III.
45. Gobron
52. Mors.
53. Mercédès II.
55. Clément
58. Darracq IV.
62. Bayard-Clément II.
63. C. V. R. IV.
68. Mercédès III.

7th Category
Voitures 4 cylindres, alésage maximum 140 millimètres

36. Siddely
37. Siddely
56. Fiat