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The Gordon Bennett Cup: Motorsport’s First International Showdown (1900-1905) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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  by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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  Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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  Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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  The Gordon Bennett Cup by Dr.
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  Pal Nagyesi.
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  Pal Neghesi is an award winning automotive historian, publisher,
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  editor, and museum professional.
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  He is currently editor of Rare and Unique Vehicles magazine, which won
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  the 2022 Richard Brigham Award from the Society of Automotive Historians.
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  He's a consultant to the Institute for Digital Culture at the University
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  of Leicester, and a lecturer at the University of Hungary.
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  Over the years, he authored many different books on the history of
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  the Hungarian motoring industry.
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  He's also been the publisher of such books as Thomas Ulrich's 1902 Diditrik and
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  the Paris Vienna Race and the Alice mit Motor, Die Standard Gutbräude Story, which
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  won the 2023 Kugno Award for Books in Language Other Than English from the SAH.
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  He's also an advisor to private collectors and museums in Hungary,
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  Germany, and the Netherlands.
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  The Gordon Bennett Cup, held for cars between 1900 and 1905, was the
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  first international racing series.
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  Stemming from an idea by American newspaper magnate James Gordon Bennett
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  Jr., the Gordon Bennett Cup was set to champion the international auto
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  industry by allowing national automobile clubs representing France, Germany,
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  Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the United States, and
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  Italy to nominate three entries each.
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  Naturally, with the growth of the industry, it became more and more
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  difficult to find suitable candidates.
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  By 1905, the industry became so diverse that it was impossible to
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  hold on to the rules of the cup.
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  So from 1906, the era of the Grand Prix started.
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  This presentation will provide a short overview of each race, and a look at the
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  most important racers and their cars.
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  Ladies and gentlemen, dear viewers, my name is Dr.
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  Pála Négyesi.
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  I'm a Hungarian born motoring historian, publisher, and author.
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  This presentation will be about the Gordon Bennett Cup, which put motorsport
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  into an international context.
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  It was the first organized motorsport event for a lot of different nations
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  and A few months ago, we were in a fortunate position to learn a lot about
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  this race, and I would like to share some of the things which we learned.
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  Some of you may know that I'm the editor and publisher of Rare and
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  Unique Vehicles, which is a quarterly automotive history magazine which
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  won the Richard Brigham Award from the Society of Automotive Historians.
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  If you like interesting stories, this is the magazine for you.
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  We cooperate with museums and collectors from time to time.
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  Last year, we published a book on the history of the Paris Vienna race,
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  which happened in 1902, which we did together with the Metropolitan
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  Collection in the Netherlands.
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  And that's when I learned a lot about early motorsport, thanks to Thomas Ulrich.
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  A lot of resources, books, and essays which have been
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  published are not so reliable.
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  So when Dieter Dressel, owner of the Central Garage Museum, in Germany, Bad
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  Homburg approached us with this idea that in 2024, it will be 120 years
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  since the 1904 Gordon Bennett race started from Bad Homburg, there should
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  be a book, there should be a website.
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  So we put together a website and in the process, We have acquired a
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  lot of photos, a lot of interesting materials, some of which I will show.
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  A little bit about Mr.
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  Dressel, who's an extremely nice private collector, and because of the 1904 Gordon
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  Bennett Cup, he amassed a huge collection of materials related to the event, which
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  he was kind enough to share with us.
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  And the Central Garage Museum, which was opened in 2007, in place of Opel
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  dealership in Bad Homburg, hosts very nice temporary exhibitions.
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  The last one is about 120 years of Harry Davidson, but the museum featured
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  various very interesting exhibitions.
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  And Mr.
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  Dressel was the president of the German Mercedes Benz Compressor
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  Club this year when he retired.
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  And he has a very nice private collection of very exciting vehicles like the
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  Maykafer prototype from Josef Gans.
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  And he's restoring the Schleierwagen, which was a Mercedes based
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  streamlined German car from 1930.
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  So together we built the Gordon Bennett Cup website, gordonbennettcup.
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  racing, which features a lot of photos, some of those which have not
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  been published before, biography of the racers, short introduction to
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  the cars, and a couple of other bits.
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  We have a complete index.
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  What's really interesting is if you look around the published resources
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  you can see that in many cases there are a lot of mistakes and the mistakes
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  are very easy to make in a race like the Gordon Bennett Cup because in part
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  this was part of many cases of other races so for example in 1901 there was
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  a Paris Bordeaux race the Gordon Bennett Cup was part of that in 1902 the Paris
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  Vienna race and It's part of that.
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  And from 1903 and 1904, there were elimination trials.
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  So before the race, they selected who will participate.
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  Over the years, some of these elimination trial participants morphed into career
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  racers in the mind of some of the authors.
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  There are several books on the Golden Bell Cup.
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  One of the best known was written many years ago by Lord Montagu, together with
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  Michael Sedgwick, who was the librarian at the Beauty Museum, and it's a great book,
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  but we went back to the contemporary race reports featured in various German English
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  and French magazines to try to get a complete picture of what really happened.
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  What was the importance of the Gordon Bennett Cup?
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  Why is it relevant today?
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  Because it is still relevant today.
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  The origins of the Gordon Bennett Cup go back to 1899.
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  When Alexander Winton, who was the biggest manufacturer of motor cars in
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  America at the time, decided to challenge the French manufacturers, claiming
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  that his cars would beat any French cars over a distance of 1, 000 miles.
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  His call was heard, and one of the French racers, Fernand Charon, accepted the
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  challenge and deposited 2, 000 francs with the Paris office of the New York Herald.
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  The New York Herald was a very well known daily, which was owned by James Gordon
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  Bennett Jr., who was a very well known playboy, sportsman, and newspaperman.
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  He took over from his father in the 1860s.
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  He was the one who sent Henry Stanley to find Dr.
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  David Livingstone in Dark East Africa.
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  In 1887, he set up the European version of the New York Era, and he was also a
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  technological innovator, introducing new techniques to French and European media.
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  And he was also creating news, making news through the promotion
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  of new sports and competitions.
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  He constantly sought new ways of speeding up news gathering and news
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  distribution on an international scale.
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  This race between Winton and Sharon never took place, but it gave Gordon Bennett
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  an idea that there should be a race, after all, between the great nations.
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  And you have to remember.
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  that this was the time when national identities were forged, in many cases
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  through wars, so this was a more calm and restrained way to share
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  and highlight national identity.
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  But, as is often the case, some people took it too far, like The second, the
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  German emperor who went out of his way to make the 1904 extremely spectacular.
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  He spent 95,000 race mark, which is about three 40 euros
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  on the grand stand alone for.
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  Gordon Bennett set up an international cup, commissioned very well known French
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  jeweler André Aoukoc to design this beautiful cup, which is today in the
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  Paris offices of the Automobile Club, and he chose a racing Panhard, steered
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  by the genius of progress, with the goddess of victory upright upon the seat.
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  The first one was, uh, hosted in 1900.
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  Every nation were allocated a color which their representatives
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  cars would be painted.
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  These were blue for France, yellow for Belgium, white for Germany, and
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  red for the United States of America.
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  Later on, Great Britain received green, Italy black, Austria black and
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  yellow, and Switzerland red and yellow.
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  There were several stipulations regarding the race.
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  Its distance would be not less than 550 and not more than 650 kilometers.
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  The cost of race organization was divided amongst the participating clubs.
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  One of the most important aspects of the criteria was that the
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  entrance and drivers representing a national club had to be members of
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  that club, but the cars themselves had to be made in their entirety.
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  In the country was Colors Day War, and every nation was able
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  to nominate three vehicles.
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  Naturally, this gave a certain edge to smaller countries where one or two
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  manufacturers vied for attention, while in France this gave way to a lot of headaches
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  and debates on who should participate and eventually led to the elimination trials.
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  Back then, curbing the rules and circumventing the rules
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  was not alien to racers.
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  So Mercedes found, let's say, a loophole.
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  They were able to nominate six cars because three cars were made in
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  Germany and three cars were made by the Daimler subsidiary in Austria, which
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  was later known as Austro Daimler.
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  The 1903 race, which was held in Ireland, by that time, city
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  to city races were cancelled.
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  First, the city to city races, which started with the 1894 Paris Rouen
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  Tour, this included some of these, as I mentioned previously, the Gordon
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  Bennett Cup, but as cars became much faster, the road conditions
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  were still dire, so lots of dust.
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  passers by there.
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  Sometimes cars went onto the roads unexpectedly.
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  And at the 1903 Paris Madrid race, there were a lot of deadly accidents.
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  And Marcel, Ronald and others unfortunately died, which led
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  eventually to track racing.
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  And this was the first.
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  time that they tried to close down the roads and designate
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  a closed track for a race.
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  The 1904 race, 2, 500 spectators were able to sit below the rows of seats.
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  There was a restaurant, a post office, press rooms, file station,
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  souvenir shops, and so on.
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  Just this five years, motorsports changed tremendously.
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  There were so many car manufacturers who wanted to participate that even
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  the elimination trials were not enough.
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  So after 1905, they switched to another type of racing.
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  You have to remember that.
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  At the turn of the century, Camille Yenatsi, a Belgian born racer, gust
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  on the Chasselhoek Laubat, and they started from 60 kilometers per hour,
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  and by 1899, the land speed record was raised to 100 kilometers per hour.
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  So these cars, which they look quite very simple and artillery wheels and
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  everything, but for example, the Van Halen, the steering wheel and the chain
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  drive and everything, they were capable of 160 kilometers per hour speed.
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  And they had these enormous engines.
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  So This was not a very safe sport.
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  For example, the Panhard and Levassor was one of the first which featured steering
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  wheel and later produced an engine with the cylinders were cast individually.
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  Previously, they were cast in pairs.
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  By the 1902 race engine power was increased to acclaim, 50
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  horsepower, but in reality, it was closer to 70 horsepower.
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  And if you look at the Mors, which was the competitor of Panha in uh, France.
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  They did not do very well at the Gordon Manifest.
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  Actually, this is a very interesting one, called the Dolphin, this is from 1903.
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  It also had a 70 horsepower engine and a kind of a streamlined body.
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  Its bonnet was shaped like an inverted ship's bow leading into a fairing.
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  It was also recognized that there is air streaming along the underside
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  of the car, so at least the gearbox was covered by a fairing.
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  Beneath the 100 liter petrol tank there was also a water tank.
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  Both Panhard and Levassor and Morse did not race after 1903.
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  One of the best known British entrants which actually won the
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  1902 Gordon Bennett Cup was Napier, which was part of the Paris Vienna
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  race, and it was driven by Edge.
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  who was a dealer but also a marketing man.
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  This had a 6.
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  4 liter engine with 45 horsepower.
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  Each cylinder had four automatic intake valves.
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  The radiator was extra large and made by a company that normally
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  produced steam powered buses.
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  It had a 180 liter petrol tank and it weighed And 33 kilos.
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  It's claimed that it was the first British racing car to be
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  painted British racing dream.
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  There are a lot of stories which can be told and lots of great stories,
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  which you can read on the website.
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  This is just, uh, a short overview.
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  Naturally, Mercedes was at the forefront of, uh, racing and they prepared.
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  and made a lot of effort for the Gordon Bennett Cup.
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  And unfortunately, they managed to only win once, the 1903 race in Ireland,
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  where Camille Iannazzi managed to win.
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  This was part of the Mercedes Simplex family.
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  Another interesting fact of these early racers is that in many, many
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  cases, the body was interchangeable.
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  So you had a touring body, which was replaced with a much
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  simpler body for the race.
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  But afterwards, in many cases, this was converted back to a
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  touring car and sold off as such.
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  This car was powered by a 66 kilowatt, 90 horsepower engine.
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  The problem was that the fire destroyed most of the works in June 1903.
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  Eventually, less powerful cars were entered, and Kamilianacsi won the
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  1903 race with an average speed of 97.
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  2 kilometers per hour, which is quite impressive.
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  And this is one of the most interesting cars of the whole race
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  because this was previously not very known, the brand Richard Brazier.
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  Henry Brazier and Max Brazier built some cars, but these were not very well known.
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  But in 1904, they came, they saw and conquered, and repeated
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  the feat in 1905 with this car.
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  It had a pressed steel chassis and chain drive, while smaller
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  models already adopted shaft drive, but this one had chain drive.
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  And as there was a 1, 000 kilo weight limit, they tried to adhere to that, and
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  this was, this car weighed 972 kilos.
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  And this was the only car in the 1904 race which had an
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  engine smaller than 10 liters.
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  9.
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  9 liters, actually.
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  It was taken from a motorboat.
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  It had a maximum horsepower of 85.
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  Who raced these cars?
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  These were sometimes factory drivers, sometimes foremen,
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  sometimes wealthy aristocrats.
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  Sometimes the designers and builders of the vehicles themselves.
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  The Red Devil, Kamil Janáčí himself, born to a wealthy family in Belgium.
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  Most of the early successful racers came from Belgium for some reason.
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  He was fearless and very daring and gave Mercedes the first international win.
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  Mr.
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  Edge, who was born in Australia, but came back to the UK, where his family lived.
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  Just like many others, he started as a bicycle racer, then switched to cars,
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  and he won the 1905 Gordon Bennett race.
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  The only small wrinkle in that saying that he won the race is that
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  actually the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup was finished by only one person.
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  And after the 1903 Gordon Bennett race, he went into more
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  long distance record racing.
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  Who won the 1904 and the 1905 races, who was nicknamed le because no one else
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  could drive as fast so consistently.
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  1904 was the first year with Richard Braier.
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  He won 19 0 4, 19 0 5.
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  Gordon Bennett's Cup.
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  Then he tried to beat his own race without success, then returned to Richard Baier
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  that unfortunately died of the E in 1909.
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  1905, the last Gordon Bennett Cup.
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  So this was a closed track, and actually this was the forerunner of
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  the Grand Prix races, which started in 1906 with the French Grand Prix.
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  And I'm very proud to say that the first Grand Prix in France was won by a
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  Ferenc Cis, who was of Hungarian origin.
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  Thank you very much for your attention.
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  You can see my email address, but also there is a link below the presentation.
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