Map of the routeCars lined up for the start: De Dion-Bouton (in front), Protos, MotoblocDe Dion-Bouton car at UticaThe Sizaire-Naudin of Pons, Deschamps and BerlheGermans in Protos car 1908 New York to Paris RaceThe 1906 Züst which took third place in the 1908 Race Around the World.The race winners
The 1908 New York to Paris Race was an automobile competition consisting of drivers attempting to travel from New York to Paris. This was a considerable challenge given the state of automobile technology and road infrastructure at the time. Only three of six contestants completed the course. The winner was the American team, driving a 1907 Thomas Flyer.
In 1907 the Peking to Paris automobile race had inspired an even bolder test of these new machines. The following year the course would be from New York City, USA, to Paris, France, with a planned 150-mile (240km) ship passage from Nome, Alaska, across the Bering Strait to East Cape, Siberia.[1]
The 1908 New York to Paris Race
The race commenced in Times Square on February 12, 1908. Six cars representing four nations were at the starting line for what would become a 169-day ordeal (making it, in terms of time taken, still the longest motorsport event ever held).[citation needed] The nations represented in the race were Germany, France, Italy, and the United States. Three of the teams (De Dion-Bouton, Motobloc, and Sizaire-Naudin) represented France, while Germany, Italy, and the US were represented by a Protos, a Zust, and a Thomas Flyer, respectively. At 11:15 AM, a gunshot signaled the start of the race. Ahead of the competitors were very few paved roads, and in many parts of the world no roads at all. Often, the teams resorted to straddling locomotiverails with their cars riding tie to tie on balloon tires for hundreds of miles when no roads could be found.
The American Thomas Flyer was in the lead after crossing the United States and arriving in San Francisco[2] in 41 days, 8 hours, and 15 minutes. It was the first crossing of the US by an automobile in winter.
The route then took them to Valdez, Alaska, by ship. The Thomas Flyer crew found impossible conditions in Alaska and the race was rerouted across the Pacific by steamer to Japan where the Americans made their way across to the Sea of Japan. Then it was on to Vladivostok, Siberia, by ship to begin crossing the continents of Asia and Europe. Only three of the competitors made it past Vladivostok: the Protos, the Züst, and the Thomas Flyer.
The wet plains of Siberia and Manchuria during the spring thaw made progress difficult. At several points, forward movement was often measured in feet rather than miles per hour.[citation needed] Eventually, the roads improved as Europe approached and the Thomas Flyer arrived in Paris on July 30, 1908, to win, having covered approx 16,700km. The Germans, whose car was driven by Hans Koeppen, had arrived in Paris four days earlier but had been penalized a total of thirty days for not going through Japan and for shipping the Protos part of the way by railcar. That gave the win to the Americans and driver George Schuster, the only American to travel the full distance from New York to Paris.[3] The winning margin was 26 days, still the largest winning margin in any motorsport event ever. The Italians arrived later, in September 1908.
The race was of international interest with daily front page coverage by The New York Times (a cosponsor of the race with the Parisian newspaper Le Matin). The significance of the event extended far beyond the race itself. Together with the Peking to Paris race, which had taken place the year before, it established the reliability of the automobile as a dependable means of transportation, eventually taking the automobile from an amusement of the rich to a reliable and viable means of long-distance transportation for the masses. It also led to the call for improved roads to be constructed in many parts of the world.
The winning Thomas Flyer is on display in Reno, Nevada, at the National Automobile Museum, alongside the trophy.
World Race 2011
While the planned Great Race 2008 was cancelled as the approval and permits to travel through China were recalled, a second effort was mounted in 2011. World Race 2011 began in Times Square April 14, 2011, as competitors set out to retrace the route taken in 1908 from New York to Paris.[4] Ultimately, four of the starting vehicles, the oldest being a 1929 Ford Model A, a 1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe, the 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, and a multi-fueled 2007 Chevrolet Corvette, reached the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 21, 2011. Participating in the 2011 race was Jeff Mahl, the great-grandson of George Schuster, the winning driver of the 1908 New York to Paris Race.[5]
The 1965 movie The Great Race was loosely inspired by the 1908 New York to Paris Race, though heavily fictionalized for comedy.
The 2008 TV documentary The Greatest Auto Race on Earth encompasses the epic story of the 1908 New York to Paris Race in vivid detail.[7]
Wolfgang Ettlich (Dir.): Hat der Motor eine Seele? 1908 im Auto um die Welt. (D, 2008, German) 86 min. (Does an engine have a soul? Around the world by car in 1908.)[8]
Episode 323 of American podcastThe Dollop focuses on the New York to Paris Race.
Episode 503 of Suspenseradio show "Around the World", broadcast on April 6, 1953.
2017 fictional novel, The Perils of Paulie, written by Katie MacAlister, was published featuring a reality TV show that recreated the race using restored versions of the original cars.
2021 episodes 8[10] and 9[11] of The Buffalo History Museum Podcast "The 1908 New York to Paris Race, Parts I & II" written by Lindsey Lauren Visser focus on the 1908 New York to Paris Car Race.
Frady, Jackie L; Michael Sion; Cindie Geddes (2007). Against All Odds: The Great New York to Paris Automobile Race of 1908. Reno, Nev: National Automobile Museum, Harrah Collection. ISBN978-0-9800703-0-9.
The Great Race is a 1965 American Technicolor slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Arthur O'Connell and Vivian Vance. The movie cost US$12 million, making it the most expensive comedy film at the time. The story was inspired by the actual 1908 New York to Paris Race.
Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition, has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as early as 1894. It quickly evolved from simple road races from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver. Innovation and the drive of competition soon saw speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), but because early races took place on open roads, accidents occurred frequently, resulting in deaths both of drivers and of spectators. A common abbreviation used for Grand Prix racing is "GP" or "GP racing".
The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915, a time when cars were often referred to as horseless carriages.
Endurance racing is a form of motorsport racing which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of participants. Teams of multiple drivers attempt to cover a large distance in a single event, with participants given a break with the ability to change during the race. Endurance races can be run either to cover a set distance in laps as quickly as possible, or to cover as much distance as possible over a preset amount of time.
Zust was an Italian car manufacturing company operating from 1905 to 1917.
The gasoline-powered Oldsmobile Model R, also known as the Curved Dash Oldsmobile, is credited as being the first mass-produced automobile, meaning that it was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts. It was introduced by the Oldsmobile company in 1901 and produced through 1903; 425 were produced the first year, 2,500 in 1902, and over 19,000 were built in all. When General Motors assumed operations from Ransom E. Olds on November 12, 1908, GM introduced the Oldsmobile Model 20, which was the 1908 Buick Model 10 with a stretched wheelbase and minor exterior changes.
E. R. Thomas Motor Company was a manufacturer of motorized bicycles, motorized tricycles, motorcycles, and automobiles in Buffalo, New York between 1900 and 1919.
Tour de France Automobile was a sports car race held on roads around France regularly between 1899 and 1986.
The Peking to Paris motor race was an automobile race, originally held in 1907, between Peking, then Qing China and Paris, France, a distance of 14,994 kilometres (9,317 mi).
Robert R. Burman was an American race car driver, he was an open-wheel pioneer, setting numerous speed records in the early 1900s. He participated in many historic races and was one of the drivers to compete in the first edition of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911.
George N. Schuster (1873–1972) was the driver of the American built Thomas Flyer and winner of the 1908 New York to Paris Race.
The 1908 Grand Prix season was the third Grand Prix racing season. An international economic recession affected motor-racing with fewer races and smaller fields. However, in consequence, it also saw an increase in the number of smaller cars and voiturette racing. This gave close racing between the teams from Lion-Peugeot, Sizaire-Naudin and Delage. Both the major races in Europe, the Targa Florio and French Grand Prix, had precursor voiturette races, and along with the Coupe des Voiturettes, the honours were shared between those three manufacturers. This year’s Targa Florio had a small, but quality, field. Vincenzo Trucco won for Isotta-Fraschini with better mechanical reliability, after a close duel with the FIATs of Felice Nazzaro and Vincenzo Lancia.
George Schuster may refer to:
Léon Théry was a French racing driver, nicknamed "Le Chronometer", who won the premier European race, the Gordon Bennett Cup, in both 1904 and 1905.
Hans Friedrich Wilhelm Hugo Koeppen was an officer in the Prussian army, the German Reichswehr, and a participant in the first car race around the world.
Protos of Nonnendamm was a German car manufacturing company founded in 1898 in Berlin by engineers Alfred Sternberg and Oscar Heymann.
Auto racing began in the mid-19th century. It became an organized sport in the early 20th century and has grown in popularity ever since.
Mishaps of the New York–Paris Race was a 1908 French silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by the real 1908 New York to Paris Race, which concluded shortly before its release, the film followed a group of racers through a hectic series of unlikely obstacles and adventures across North America, Russia, and Western Europe in a highly unreliable race car. Film scholars have noted parallels to earlier Méliès films, including The Impossible Voyage and An Adventurous Automobile Trip, and have commented on elements of racism in the scenario, but the film itself is currently presumed lost.
The Merrimack Valley Course was a temporary street circuit in Lowell, Massachusetts. The 10.6 mile track hosted its first races in 1908 and was on the 1909 AAA Championship Car schedule. Due to financial losses, racing was discontinued after that season.
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