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The Gogdon Bennett Races by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu
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Grand Prix Racing 1906-1914 by Taso Mathieson
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Power and Glory by William Court
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Ten Years of Motors and Motor Racing 1896-1906 by Charles Jarrott
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The Complete History of Grand Prix Motor Racing by Adriano Cimarosti
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The Story of Brooklands vol 3 by Bill Boddy
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The dawn of automobile racing was anything but that. It was thought that a car's ability to navigate roads in a reliable manner was all that could be hoped for. Outright speed was not even considered important that is until the flag dropped ...

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. Monument to Emille LevassorBecause 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. An other 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 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.

Nation shall race against Nation
Gordon Bennett 1905In 1900 Gordon Bennett, the Owner if the New York Herald, established a series of races bearing his name. Each nation had a team of three cars chosen by each national automobile club. In 1902 Mors introduced spring dampers which resulted in dramatically improved road-holding. With the cars now approaching speeds of 100 mph the races, held on open roads, resulted in several fatal accidents some of which included spectators. The Automobile Club de France, which was formed in 1895, decided after many disagreements over regulations to hold their own races. In 1906 The French held the very first Grand Prix for manufactures over a 64-mile course near Le Mans. Of the 32 cars that started the race 11 remained after 12 laps split over two days. The winner was Ferenc Szisz, a Hungarian, driving a 90hp Renault. His Renault utilized detachable rims created by Michelin which enabled him to change tires in 2 to 3 minutes instead of the normal 15 minutes. Another important event that year was the inaugural Targa Florio. Organized by the wealthy Sicilian Vicenzo Floria, the race covered three laps of 148.832 km over mountain roads unchanged since the Punic Wars

The victors with Lautenschlager in the first car on the leftIn 1907 the Germans held their own race, the Kaiserpreis, for touring cars of under 8 liters and weighing less than 1165 kg. The race was won by Nazzaro in a Fiat. France, the birthplace of auto racing was finding itself among the also rans. After dominating racing up until 1906 they were supplanted by the Alfa of Italy and Mercedes of Germany. The defining race of the pre- WW1 era was the ACF Grand Prix of 1914. The race was held on a 36.63 km circuit near Lyons and would last 20 laps.  The formula for that year restricted engine capacity to 4500cc and weight to 1100kg. Peugeot, determined to return France to the front ranks of motor sports entered three cars that featured four-wheel brakes. The main challenge for France were the Germans led by five Mercedes. With the political tensions in Europe coming to a head the race could not escape from having political overtones. Max Sailor, a Mercedes director and race car driver led from the start with the Peugeot of Georges Boillot in second. The leading Mercedes developed engine trouble and on the sixth lap the Peugeot took the lead. The French crowd erupted into patriotic demonstrations. The order was now Peugeot, the Mercedes of Lautenschlager, another Peugeot and the Mercedes of Wagner. It was now Wagner's turn to make a charge and on the 11th lap he forced his way into second. The second Peugeot, driven by Goux began to overheat and was destined to retire. This left the Peugeot of Boillot still in from ahead of the on coming Germans. The 15th lap had now been completed with the Peugeot 2 minutes and 28 seconds ahead of the Mercedes driven by Wagner. After running a conservative race in the early laps Lautenschlager was now poised to begin his march. Passing his teammate he began to close the gap on the leading Peugeot. Boillot drove for all he was worth but nothing could stop the Mercedes from taking the lead. The Peugeot, not able to withstand the strain broke a valve and retired. Mercedes now owned the first three places and so they finished with Lautenschlager claiming his second ACF Grand Prix title. The sullen crowd responded with only a smattering of applause while the Mercedes pits erupted in joy. On this bitter note, for France, racing stopped on the European continent. Several leading drivers without a European outlet crossed the Atlantic and entered the Vanderbilt Cup, Indianapolis and the American Grand Prize.

The rise of purpose built racing circuits
Racing on public roads was illegal in England and British drivers had to resort to racing in Ireland or on the continent. The British motor industry suffered as a consequence. In response to this a group of wealthy enthusiasts led by Hugh F. Locke-King planned a race track to be built on his property in Surrey. In 1907 an oval circuit with banked corners was built. Handicap races were held which became as much a social event as an automobile race. In fact the races were organized more like horse races as drivers had to wear certain colors instead of having numbers on their cars. Bookmakers would organize wagers yet Brooklands did have some fantastic racing and served as a site for many speed record attempts. Racing in Europe continued on closed public roads but these were not profitable as it was impossible to charge any entrance fee, besides the races were very dangerous do to lack of crowd control. Fiat's Lingotto factory test trackThe 1920s saw the advent of shorter specially built circuits throughout Europe. In 1922 the Italian Grand Prix was held at one of these new tracks, the Autodromo Monza. The Autodromo consisted of a 3.4 mile road course and a 2.8 mile banked oval. For its inaugural race 100,000 spectators poured through its gates. The event became a Fiat parade when many of the other manufactures pulled out. The French Grand Prix held later that year, on closed roads near Strasbourg, was again dominated by Fiat.

1925 saw a number of developments. New road racing circuits were being built throughout Europe including Miramas, near Marseilles and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Riding mechanics were banned as they had been in America. The first World Championship was organized and included the French, Italian and Belgian Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500. This championship was between manufactures rather than drivers. Alfa Romeo won that inaugural year and celebrated the victory by incorporating a laurel wreath into its badge. Unfortunately this also marked the high point for Grand Prix racing until the next decade. Because of escalating costs and few perceived benefits most of the major manufactures decided to abandon their factory racing efforts.

Formula Libre
Grand Prix racing in accordance with a strict formula based on engine size and weight was abandoned in 1928.In its place, races were run under Formula Libre rules. In lieu of the major manufacturers, drivers raced as privateers or in partnership with specialist racing-car builders such as Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Bugatti. Bugatti dominated racing during this period in the hands of drivers such as Louis Chiron. In 1929 William Grover Williams won the first Monaco Grand Prix driving a Bugatti. The Bugatti race cars were some of the most beautiful cars ever built but suffered from inadequate brakes. A famous quote attributed to Ettore Bugatti after criticism of his brakes was: " I build my cars to go, not stop".  In 1930 Alfa Romeo decided to enlist a new company to direct all of their racing efforts. This company was called Scuderia Ferrari and was run by Enzo Ferrari.

OM of Brescia the winner of the first Mille MigliaOne event that stood out during this period was the Mille Miglia. The Mille Miglia was designed as a way to promote and improve Italian motor car design and reliability. Improving Italian roads was unfortunately not a priority as a recent visit to that country can attest. The Mille Miglia provided a test of almost 1000 grueling miles of good, bad, and indifferent roads. The route traveled east to Vicenza, south along the Adriatic to Pescara, west to Rome and then northwest to Brescia. It was the province of Italian drivers for most of its history. Traditionally the first cars, the amateurs, would leave Brescia at 9 p.m. at 1-minute intervals and return 16-24 hours later. Due to the amount of entrants the works teams would depart sometime the next morning. Each car would have its starting time painted on the car, which would allow spectators some indication of their relative placement. Hundreds of thousand of spectators would line the roads to cheer their heroes on. In fact it was a lack of crowd control that would actually cause this race to be abandoned after the 1957 race which saw the death of the Marquis de Portago, his co-driver and ten spectators. This race has played host to many epic drives such as that undertaken by Caracciola in 1931 and Moss/Jenkinson in 1955. But none could top the Mille Miglia of 1930 when Nuvolari racing through the night, passed Varzi with his headlights turned off! In three weeks Varzi returned the favor by coming back from a car fire to win the Targa Florio.

 




 

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Motor Racing: Reflections of a Lost Era Motor Racing: Reflections of a Lost Era

The British motorsport scene has always been renowned for brave innovation and this was certainly the case during the exciting time described by this book. An enthusiast's reflective potpourri, in words and intimate paddock scenes, photographed in black and white and color beginning from the mid 1950s and through the 1960s, when motor racing was still accessible to all, and, finally the 1970s when overt sponsorship and television changed the sport for ever. A defining era. Illustrated with 300 extensively captioned, many previously unpublished photographs. Including continental race circuits, the cars and the personalities. Essential reading for any true motorsport fan.



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Peter Coltrin: Racing in Color 1954-1959
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 1950s Motorsport in Colour
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 The Cruel Sport: Grand Prix Racing 1959-1967
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 Le Mans '55: The Crash that Changed the Face of Motor Racing
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 Autodrome: The lost race circuits of Europe
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