Motorsport year 1898

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In the motorsport year 1898 , in addition to a few smaller races, two internationally important motorsport events took place, both of which had Paris as their starting point. The highlight of the season was the Paris – Amsterdam – Paris race organized by the ACF , in which state borders were crossed for the first time. The use of professional racing drivers and the first racing cars specially developed for this purpose by the participating automobile companies was also new .

The dominant brand was Panhard & Levassor with drivers Fernand Charron and Léonce Girardot , who left the company in 1901 to found the CGV brand together with their teammate Émile Voigt .

The first race with international participation was held in Italy on July 17th. The 119 mile (approx. 190 km) round trip led from Turin via Asti and Alessandria back to Turin.

In 1898, female drivers took part in motorsport for the first time: A Mme. Laumaillé drove in the local Marseille – Nice race and Hélène van Zuylen (1863–1947), wife of ACF President Baron Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt (1860–1934), competed in the Paris – Amsterdam – Paris race, making it the first international female car racing driver.

Racing calendar

date	run	winner
6-7 March	Marseille - Nice	Fernand Charron ( Panhard & Levassor )
1st of May	Périgueux - Mussidan - Périgueux	Gustave Leys ( Panhard & Levassor )
11-12 May	Paris - Bordeaux (Critérium des Entraineurs)	René de Knyff ( Panhard & Levassor )
May 24th	Berlin - Potsdam - Berlin	unknown ( Daimler / Allgemeine Motorwagen )
May 29th	Bordeaux - Agen	Petit ( Peugeot )
25-26 June	Brussels - Spa	Pierre de Crawhez ( Panhard & Levassor )
7-13 July	Paris - Amsterdam - Paris	Fernand Charron ( Panhard & Levassor )
17th July	Turin - Asti - Alessandria - Turin	Guido Ehrenfreund ( Miari & Giusti-Bernardi )
July 31–1. August	Lille - Calais - Lille	Émile Kraeutler ( Peugeot )
20-21 August	Bordeaux - Biarritz	René Loysel ( Léon Bollée )
August 21	Lyon - Lagnieu	Eldin ( Peugeot )
27.-29. August	South Tyrol ( Trafoi - Mendel Pass )	Wilhelm Bauer ( Daimler )
the 20th of October	Saint-Germain - Vernon - Saint-Germain	Levegh ( Mors )

Race results

The race winner Fernand Charron in a Panhard type Marseille-Nice

Marseille – Nice

space	driver	team	time
1	Fernand Charron	Panhard & Levassor	6: 53.45 h
2	Gilles Hourgières	Panhard & Levassor	+ 7.24 min
3	René de Knyff	Panhard & Levassor	+ 4.31 min

The race took place from March 6th to 7th and was held in two daily stages. The first led over 82 km from Marseille to Hyères ; The winner on this section was the Baron de Knyff with a time of 2: 08.09 hours and an average speed of 38.44 km / h. Another Panhard works driver , Fernand Charron , completed the second and significantly longer stage from Hyères to Nice with a time of 4: 42.43 h and an average of 30.73 km / h as the fastest. It can be assumed that the arrival coincided with the Nice Speed ​​Week, also in March.

For the first time a race was held according to vehicle classes:

• Class 1: weight over 400 kg ("heavy" class)
• Class 2: weight 200–400 kg ("light" class)
• Class 3: weight 100–200 kg ( voiturettes )
• Class 4: weight less than 100 kg (motor tricycles)

The aforementioned Mme. Laumaillé drove on a De Dion-Bouton Tricycle and achieved 27th place in the overall classification.

Paris – Bordeaux

space	driver	team	time
1	René de Knyff	Panhard & Levassor	15: 15.31 h
2	Fernand Charron	Panhard & Levassor	+ 2: 27.53 h
3	Breuil	Panhard & Levassor	+ 3: 04.30 a.m.

In two daily stages, the Paris – Bordeaux race led from May 11 to 12, 1898 from Versailles via Tours to Bordeaux .

577 km had to be covered, the winner's average was around 38 km / h. The race was a triumph for the Panhard & Levassor cars , which took the top three places.

The eventual winner René de Knyff at the start of the race

Paris – Amsterdam – Paris

space	driver	team	time
1	Fernand Charron	Panhard & Levassor	33: 04.34 h
2	Léonce Girardot	Panhard & Levassor	+ 20.44 min
3	Etienne Giraud	Amédée Bollée	+ 1: 04.20 h

In the Paris – Amsterdam – Paris race, a car race crossed a state border for the first time and led back from Paris via Nijmegen to Amsterdam and via Liège and Verdun in six daily stages with a day of rest in Amsterdam from July 7th to 13th, 1898 .

For the first time, vehicles that had been specially built for racing purposes also appeared, the streamlined Amédée Bollées , which at least achieved third and fifth places.

After a hard fight, the former cyclist Fernand Charron on Panhard & Levassor defeated his teammate Léonce Girardot by 20 minutes with a total duration of 33 hours. The average on the 1430 km long route was around 43 km / h.

literature

• Griffith Borgeson : Bugatti by Borgeson (1981), Osprey Publishing Limited, London ISBN 0-85045-414-X (English)
• Richard von Frankenberg / Marco Matteucci: History of the Automobile (1973), Sigloch Service Edition / STIG Torino; without ISBN

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1898  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Hans Etzrodt: GRAND PRIX WINNERS 1895–1949. Part 1 (1895-1916). www.kolumbus.fi, accessed on May 25, 2020 (English). 
• 1898 Grand Prix and Paris Races. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on October 20, 2018 ; accessed on May 25, 2020 (English). 
• CGV and Charron at VEA (Voitures Européennes d'autrefois) (French and English) (accessed April 6, 2019)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ in some sources also Carl Voigt called
2. ↑ VEA; CGV CHARRON (France) 1901-1930.
3. ^ Borgeson: Bugatti by Borgeson , p. 31
4. ↑ teamdan.com: 1898 Grand Prix and Paris Races