Ten Years of Motor Racing.*

Progress, Volume II, Issue 5, 1 March 1907, Page 164

Ten Years of Motor Racing.*

By Georges Prade

The sport of automobile racing began in France and the entire world ten years ago, and these ten years are those that created not only the racing car which we saw whizzing by on the Circuit de la Sarthe at ninety miles an hour, but also the touring carriage which brought the visitor to the tribunals of Mars, and which, however humble and modest it be, is nevertheless a monster of speed as compared with the racing car of days gone by. Let us, then, date the foundation of automobile racing in France from the Paris-Bordeaux race of 1895 (although a few races of no great importance

had taken place previously), and allow us to present the first winner, the famous No. 5, which was driven by Levassor himself, the founder of the great French establishment which was found in line again this year. It is a far cry that crude carriage with its 4-h.p. motor to the monster of to-day. High and short, and so heavy that with so moderate a power it would not even have been able to take part in races in which the weight is limited to 2200 lb., it took 48 h. 12 mm. to make the round trip, a total of 720 miles. It was also a Panhard that triumphed in 1896 in the Paris-Marseilles and return race, organised by the Automobile Club of France, which had then been formed. The test was a 1054-mile one, and the winner was Mayade, who covered the distance in 67 h. 42 mm. 58 sec. This time the run was by stages, and the race lasted ten days. The carnage would appear to-day as ridiculous as that of the Pans-Bordeaux race, with its cow-tail steering lever, winch was to cost the life of Levassor in this same race, and, three years later, that of Mayade himself. Nevertheless, we note an improvement m the first motor with four non-balanced cylinders, in which the explosion passed successively from the first to the second, from the second to the third, and from the third to the fourth, thus making of the motor and carriage a genuine instrument of torment by reason cf its vibrations. In the test for motor-cycles, now abandoned, the winner was Viet, upon a De Dion machine. Among the participants in the ParisMarseilles race with Viet, now engineer at the Renault Brothers' works, was to be found in a carriage with seats for four, and which was to make the first trials of pneumatic tyres, Chevalier Ren. de Knyff, now president of the Racing Committeee of the Automobile Club of France. The Marquis De Dion had already taken part in the Pans-Bordeaux race, and m 1897 we saw Baron Zuylen in line upon a motor-cycle in the first Marseilles-Nice race. The year 1897 was more con-

* Translated fiom Lcs Spo)ts,

fused. The Automobile Club of France did not itself organise any great races ; but the Automobile Club of Nice got up that of MarseillesNice, which was won by Count Chasseloup Loubat on a De Dion-Bouton steam brake, followed by M. Michelin, the well-known manufacturer of pneumatic tyres, who tested his own products, with the result that he became the first to engage in an industry which was then unthought of, and the success of which was to be phenomenal. Beaten at the beginning of the season, the explosion motor had its revenge in the Pans-Dieppe and Paris-Trouville races with the Leon Bollee voiturettes that where led to victory by Jamin, one of the organisers of the 1906 Circuit of Sarthe, and with the famous 6-h.p. Panhard carriages, * which have become classic under the name of PansDieppe, and were led to victory by M. Huillier, at present one of the managers of the Mors establishment and who raced under the pseudonym of Giles Hourgieres. It was with this same type of carriage, the last to be steered with a lever, that Ren de Knyff in 1898 was to gain his first victory in the ParisBordeaux race, in which he covered the distance in 15 hours, a performance which, at the time, astonished the whole world. But the year 1898 was to witness the advent of the first car of which the outlines and details slightly recall the motor vehicles of the present day — that famous 8-h.p. Panhard which won the Paris- Amsterdam race and glory for Carron, who covered the 1011 miles divided into six stages in 33 h. 4 mm. 34 sec. The second was M. Girardot, the third Gaudry, the pseudonym of M. Etienne Giraud ; the fourth M. Ren de Knyff, and the fifth M. Loysel. The 8-h.p. Panhard of the Paris -Amsterdam race had four balanced cylinders, a steering column with inclined wheel, and a radiator in front. The form of the car was elongated and low, and the average of the winner, which was thirty miles an hour, marked the definite conquest of what we to-day call speed, for even at the present time an average of thirty miles on an unprepared road constitutes an unquestionable speed. But something better yet was going to be done. The year 1899 was to mark the creation, by the Panhard establishment, of the famous 12-h p cars, the type of which long remained classic, and which, driven by Harron, won the Paris-Bordeaux race in 11 h. 43 mm., and then the celebrated 1 6-h.p. Panhard with which Ren de Knyff was to win the Tour de France (the longest test known to automobile sport — 1398 miles) in 44 h. 43 mm. Towards the end of 1899 the 16-h.p. Mors had already triumphed in the Paris-Ostende, Paris-Trouville and Bordeaux-Biarritz races. However, the decisive contest between the two great French houses. did not take place till July, 1900, upon the 822-mile stretch of the Paris-Toulon race, where the 24-h.p. Mors driven by Levegh attained an average speed of 43 miles an hour, and covered the distance in 26 h. 43 mm. 55 sec. The winner of the voiturettes was the glorious Marcel Renault, who was later on to lose his life in the Paris-Madrid race, after winning the Paris- Vienna event. The great year of success for the Mors establishment, however, was 1901, in which Henry Fournier, its champion, won in succession the Paris-Bordeaux race at an average of 55 miles in 6 hours, and the Paris-Berlin — which will perhaps remain the most colossal success of automobile tests — in which he covered 732 miles in 16 h. 6 mm. Here again the voiturette winner was Renault, represented ' by the second brother, Louis, who was both an engineer and racer.

The year 1902 marked the first important regulation of automobile racing. It was the weight limit. It was decided that racing cars should not weigh over 2200 pounds. The general type had been scarcely modified. At the most, a new form of the old Daimler had made its appearance at the Mors and Mercedes, with ignition by magneto, and, later, a steel frame. The year 1902 was that of the great battle. This was waged upon the 873-mile stretch of the Paris-Vienna circuit, the winner in which was Marcel Renault, in a light 1430-ib carriage, while after a furious contest between Panhard and Mercedes in the big 2200- lb class, victory settled upon the banner of the French house with its 70-h.p., the champion of which was Henry Farman, who came in ahead of Zborowski, who drove a 40-h p. Mercedes The general victory was accorded to Marcel Renault. It was in this race that was seen the advent of the majority of the marks that we find in the lists of to-day the Darracq, which disputed the victory with the Renault up to the last moment ; the Brasier, which was then making its debut ; the Gobron-Bnlli, run by alcohol ; and the Clement. It was at the end of the season of 1899 that Mr. James Gordon Bennett founded the celebrated race, the principle of which was that it should be disputed between the great national clubs, each represented by three cars manufactured in all their parts in the country represented by the club. It was therefore a national competition par excellence, which required a national production in each country The first year the cup was contested for upon

the Paris-Lyon Circuit, and there was but one rider to each of the three 20-h.p. Panhard cars that contributed the French contingent. The winner was Charron, who came in ahead of Girardor. In 1901 the cup was obscured in the Paris-Bordeaux race won by Fournier ; and the winning of the cup by Girardot in a 24-h.p. Panhard car passed unnoticed. Up to then no foreign club existed, or, at least, as in 1901, had come to the front. Again in 1902 the race was run in conjunction with another (Paris- Vienna), when, some racing accidents having arrested the three French champions, Edge, the sole foreign contestant, in a Napier car, captured the cup and carried it to England. From that time it was the Gordon Bennett Cup that became the great race. The prohibition of races in France after the Paris-Madrid, of which the first stage only -was run, and won by Gabriel on a Mors, soon emphasised this evolution. The creation by Baron Pierre de Crawhez of the Circuit of Ardennes, the great Belgian race, inaugurated the principle of the circuit, and of the race without neutralisation, but did not suffice to diminish interest in the Gordon Bennett Cup. Such interest became colossal when, in 1903, the cup was won in Ireland by Jenatzy on a Mercedes car, and was thus captured for a second time by another than France and carried to Germany. The type of the victorious racing car was to have a profound effect upon the prevailing style of vehicles. The chassis of pressed steel, ball bearings, the regulation of the gases, the ignition by magneto and the radiator cooled by fan were introduced into fashion by the successes due to the races of 1902 and 1903. The cup therefore became the object of the tests of 1904. The French industry prepared itself thoroughly for it, and the Automobile Club of France organised elimination trials in order that it might designate its three champions. It was the Brasier establishment, new in name, but whose engineer, M. Richard Brasier, had assisted in the construction of the victorious cars of 1900 and 1901, which attached its name to the recapture of the cup in 1904 at the Taunus race, and to the apparently definite possession of it at Auvergne in 1905. It was a Brasier car driven by Thery that won the four races in succession, beating the German industry in the Taunus and the Italian in the Auvergne race after a hot contest. For it must here be remarked that in 1904, at the Taunus race, a new rival, Italy, had sprung up with the Fiat cars, which, in 1905, came very near taking the cup from France. At the end of the year 1905 the Italian industry gained its first international victory at home at Brescia with the Italas, while the Darracq cars won in succession in the Circuit of Ardennes and in the Vanderbilt cup race in the United States.