Motorsport year 1895
After the scandal about the withholding prize for Albert de Dion after the Paris-Rouen car race in 1894 , Albert de Dion began to organize a fairer and more demanding test with a small team of like-minded people. This resulted in the Paris – Bordeaux – Paris race in the motorsport year of 1895 . Ironically, in this race, too, victory was not awarded to the two fastest cars.
Shortly before, the first car race had taken place in Italy . The United States followed in November. The main event had to be held under such bad weather conditions that those responsible massively shortened the route. Nevertheless, the Chicago Times-Herald Contest went down in automotive history - and in American folklore as The Great Horse-less Carriage Race .
Racing calendar
| date | run | winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 18 |
 Turin - Asti -Turin |
Simone Federmann ( Daimler )
|
| 2 | June 11-13 |
 Paris - Bordeaux -Paris |
Émile Levassor ( Panhard & Levassor )
|
| 3 | 11/02 |
.svg){kind=small} Chicago Times-Herald Expo Run |
Oscar Mueller (Mueller- Benz )
|
| 4th | 11/28 |
Chicago Times-Herald Contest |
James Frank Duryea ( Duryea )
|
Race results
Turin-Asti-Turin
| space | driver | team | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Simone Federmann
|
Daimler | 6:00 a.m. |
| 2 |
Gianbattista Ceirano
|
Hildebrand & Wolfmüller | |
| 3 |
.svg){kind=small} Alois Wolfmüller
|
Hildebrand & Wolfmüller |
The first car race in Italy took place on May 18, 1895 with the Esperimento di corsa di veicoli automotori and was u. a. also advertised for motorcycles . The Turin - Asti - Turin circuit covered a distance of 93 km. Five vehicles were at the start, three crossed the finish line. The winner was the engineer Simone Federmann in a Daimler , who achieved an average speed of 15.5 km / h. His four-seater “omnibus” was a forerunner of our limousines. Places two and three were occupied by German Hildebrand & Wolfmüller motorcycles. Second came Gianbattista Ceirano , third was the inventor of the machine himself, Alois Wolfmüller from Landsberg am Lech . After all, the six-seater self-built steam car (a “ break ” or hunting car) of Franco Sclaverani and the Benz by Cleto Brena made it as far as Asti .
Paris – Bordeaux – Paris
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| space | driver | team | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Émile Levassor
|
Panhard & Levassor | 48: 48.00 h |
| 2 |
Louis Rigoulot
|
Peugeot | + 5: 47.00 h |
| 3 |
Paul Koechlin
|
Peugeot | + 11: 00.00 h |
Albert de Dion and others founded a committee to regulate the preparations for the Paris – Bordeaux – Paris race from June 11 to June 13, 1895. This resulted in the Automobile Club de France (ACF), the French automobile club , in late autumn .
In order to maintain equal opportunities, the vehicles had to offer space for four passengers. The route for this race led from Paris via Versailles , Orléans , Tours , Poitiers and Angoulême to Bordeaux and back.
22 vehicles started in Paris, including 15 gasoline-powered, 6 steam -powered and one electric. The route ran over 1178 km and Émile Levassor , the fastest, took just under 49 hours, which corresponds to an average speed of around 24 km / h. However, both his Panhard & Levassor and the second Peugeot , Louis Rigoulot , only had two seats, which is why the first prize went to Paul Koechlin in the fastest four-seater (Peugeot). The moral winner, also from the audience's point of view, was Levassor. The race brought the triumph of the gasoline-powered vehicles over the steam-powered ones, as all nine vehicles at the finish were four-wheeled gasoline-powered vehicles; In addition to the victorious Panhard and Peugeot brands, these were Benz and Roger-Benz as well as an Amédée Bollée - Voiturette . The eliminated steam cars came from leading manufacturers such as Serpollet or De Dion-Bouton (chauffeured by Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat ), as well as two Gautier-Wehrlé and a Rossel. The Jeantaud electric car, the participating motorcycles of the brands Millet , Hildebrand & Wolfmüller (both to Angoulême) and Millet (with a rotary engine in the rear wheel; to Orléans) and André Michelin's Peugeot , which had to give up because of tire problems, also did not finish .
Chicago Times-Herald Expo Run
| space | driver | team | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Oscar Mueller
|
Mueller- Benz | 8: 44.00 h |
| 2 |
James Frank Duryea
|
Duryea Buggyaut | |
| no further drivers started | |||
The Chicago Times-Herald Expo Run was scheduled at very short notice. The route ran over 151 km from Chicago to Waukegan and back. This was actually supposed to be the Chicago Times-Herald Contest , which was originally scheduled for this date. The interest was huge and nearly 100 registrations were received, including virtually all of the designers and inventors who had worked with automobiles in the United States. Reported were MH Daley , John Chester De La Vergne , the eventual winner J. Frank and Charles Duryea , John W. Hall , Elwood Haynes (who had an accident on the way to the launch site), Max Hertel , the electric car pioneer Henry G. Morris and Pedro G. Salom with Electrobat II , Charles Brady King and Clark Sintz . The advertising newspaper had set a registration deadline that was far too short. There were numerous cancellations because many participants signaled that they could not finish their vehicles on time. Therefore, the event was postponed to November 28 at very short notice. In order to still offer something to the audience and to keep them interested in the main race, the Expo Run was held instead on the planned route. For the participants in the actual contest, however, the Expo Run was not attractive because there was a considerable risk of an accident or the vehicle could break down at the Herald contest with a defect that could not be repaired in time. It is therefore understandable that the drivers were careful with their material. Several of the racing cars registered for the contest were only exhibited and only two participants actually took part in the “race”. J. Frank Duryea resigned. Before reaching Waukegan, his buggyaut landed in the ditch when a horse-drawn vehicle pulled out while overtaking. The vehicle had to be sent home for repair. Before that it had been shown that it was significantly faster than the Mueller- Benz . As a result of the accident, however, Oscar Mueller was the only one to finish.
Chicago Times-Herald Contest
| space | driver | team | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
James Frank Duryea
|
Duryea Buggyaut | 8: 23.00 h |
| 2 |
Oscar Mueller
|
Mueller- Benz | + 30.00 min |
| 79 reports 8 vehicles at the start 1 vehicle started approx. 70 minutes late |
|||
The real history of motorsport in the United States begins on Thanksgiving in 1895. That November 28th, the Chicago Times-Herald Contest was an event that has occasionally been referred to as the first car race in the United States, although that is exactly taken does not apply. However, it was the first of its kind to arouse broad public interest in the USA and thus provided a decisive impetus for motorization in the country. The participating vehicles had to have at least three wheels and space for two people, as a referee was in each car. These included personalities such as Hiram Percy Maxim or Charles Brady King ; they were allocated to the respective vehicles by drawing lots. King was one of the designers who had to withdraw their registration because the car was not ready to start. After cancellations and disqualifications, 79 registrations remained. It had snowed heavily for three days before the race. It was therefore decided at short notice to start the race in a shortened form; instead of going to Waukegan, the route now only ran from Chicago to Evanston , Illinois and back. The decision to hold the race at all led to more registered participants withdrawing. There remained - for the time being - 31. Only eight actually appeared; three stopped at the start. One of the favorites, Oscar Mueller, started the race over an hour late after hectic repairs. Many drivers preferred to stay away without logging out, including Edward Joel Pennington , who had already embarked for the UK at the time, demonstrating that he never seriously wanted to participate. In the field of the starters were two electrics; three of the petrol engines were Benz designs that had been adapted by their owners for the bad roads in the USA. Elwood Haynes , another favorite, was particularly unlucky : he had an accident in Chicago while driving to the event. Even during the race there was snowfall and freezing cold. Only two of the six starters made it to the finish. John Chester was the first to retire with the De la Vergne -Benz. Oscar Mueller collapsed from cold and exhaustion an hour before the finish line; his referee drove the car across the finish line.
On the 80 km long route, the winner achieved an average speed of around 10 km / h.
Others
- November 12 : Albert de Dion and other automobile enthusiasts found the Automobile Club de France .
literature
- Beverly Rae Kimes : Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Ed. SAE ( Society of Automotive Engineers ) Permissions, Warrendale PA, 2005; ISBN 0-7680-1431-X .
- James J. Flink: America Adopts the Automobile - 1895-1910. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), 1970; ISBN 0-262-06036-1 .
Web links
- Hans Etzrodt: GRAND PRIX WINNERS 1895–1949. Part 1 (1895-1916). www.kolumbus.fi, accessed on May 19, 2020 (English).
- 1895 Grand Prix and Paris Races. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on July 23, 2018 ; accessed on May 19, 2020 (English).
- repubblica.it: Rivive la "mamma" di tutte le corse ; April 28, 2011 , accessed August 8, 2013 (Italian).
- Early American Automobiles: Duryea, The First American Automobile, and the 1895 Chicago Herald-Times Automobile Race. , accessed on May 26, 2017 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, pp. 49-64.
- ↑ IN THE CURRENT FAMILY OWNERSHIP SINCE THE LATE 1960S, c. 1894/1895 HILDEBRAND & WOLFMÜLLER, Engine no. 47. In: Bonhams . www.bonhams.com, January 6, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ May 18 Torino, Villanova d'Asti, Villafranca Asti, Asti, Torino - 93 km. racecarstory.netsons.org, January 6, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, pp. 49-54.
- ^ NY Times Archive , January 8, 1922, accessed August 9, 2013.
- ↑ a b Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, p. 57.