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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. 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. 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
In 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

In 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.