The Greatest Race – 1908 New York to Paris

By Art Evans
As I described in my July column, the first motorized-vehicle race on land is acknowledged by historians to be the 1893 Paris to Rouen. Other place-to-place races followed in Europe before the turn of the century. Many of them involved Paris as a location of origination or destination. Paris-Bordeaux-Paris followed Rouen in 1895, Paris-Marseille-Paris in 1896 and so on. The original purpose of these events was to demonstrate the viability of motorcars as a means of transportation. The first in the U.S. was the 1895 Chicago-Waukegan-Chicago. By 1907, the longest race to that date was from Peking to Paris.
The ultimate of the genre, however, was the New York-to-Paris in 1908. Wait a minute! How could there be such an automobile race when there’s the Atlantic Ocean between the two cities? Well, it depends on which way you go. To the West, there’s only the 53-mile Bering Strait separating the United States from Russia. The rest is land.
When the race was announced, the original course was planned to include a 150-mile ship passage from Nome, Alaska across the Bering Strait to East Cape, Siberia. (As an aside, it is actually possible to make the trip solely via a road-going vehicle, because the Strait freezes over in the winter. But it wasn’t until 2008 that Steve Burgess and Dan Evans made the crossing in a Land Rover Defender 110).
In 1908, the idea of driving a car from New York to Paris was not credible; it had never been done or even attempted. Paved highways in those days were almost unknown and, in some parts of the course, there were no roads at all. Road maps were non-existent. The cars themselves were fragile as were the tires. Not only that, the race took place during the winter! The eventual route was New York City to Albany, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Valdez, Japan, Vladivostok, Omsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris.
The race was sponsored by the New York Times and Le Matin, a Paris newspaper. It was described as “the most fantastic, grueling, strenuous test ever devised for man and machine.” Six cars entered: the U.S.-built Thomas Flyer, an Italian Züst, a German Protos plus a French DeDion-Bouton, Motobloc and Sizaire-Naudin. American race driver Montague Roberts drove the Thomas with George Schuster the head mechanic. Kaiser Wilhelm selected Lt. Hans Koeppen to drive his personal entry, the Protos. Baron Charles Godard, headed the Motobloc crew. Marquis DeDion chose G. Bourcier de St. Chaffrey. The crew-captain driver of the Sizaire-Naudin was M. August Pons and Antonio Scarfoglio drove the Züst. All of the cars were loaded with extra gasoline, shovels, ropes, chains, tools and spare parts as well as the drivers and crew.

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On February 12, 1908, all six cars lined up in Times Square. At 11:15 a.m., a shot from a gold-plated pistol started the race witnessed by more than 250,000 spectators. The cars proceeded north, but before reaching Albany, the Sizaire-Naudin, which had competed in the 1907 Targa Florio, broke its rear axle and dropped out near Peekskill, New York, leaving five. Because of a blizzard, it took eight days to reach Chicago. Proceeding west on what is now the route of the Lincoln Highway, they were supposed to reach Cheyenne, Wyoming, no later than March 6. Only the Thomas Flyer made it on time. On some stretches where there were no roads, the cars drove on railroad tracks. The rules forbid using the rails themselves, so they bumped along on the ties with special tires.

The Thomas flew across the continent reaching San Francisco on March 24 having taken 41 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes. It was the first time a car had crossed the U.S. in the winter. (The summer record then was 15 days, 2 hours and 15 minutes set by a Franklin.) The Motobloc broke down in Carroll, Iowa. The rest of the pack was still either in Utah or Wyoming. During the trip, Montague Roberts had had to drop out due to a legal problem, so eventually George Schuster took over.
In Utah, the Protos had engine problems and on-the-spot repairs proved not possible. Lt. Koeppen asked the committee if he could ship the car to Seattle. Without an official ruling, he took the car on the train. In so doing, the Protos skipped 1,000 miles of difficult terrain. This would become an important factor in deciding the winner. When the Protos arrived in Seattle, Koeppen explained that the Protos had to be sent to Vladivostok where a new engine could be installed. The Protos as well as the DeDion were shipped directly to Vladivostok. The rules committee assessed a 15-day penalty on each and placed another 15-day penalty on the Protos for missing the 1,000 miles in the U.S.
From Seattle, they were supposed to drive north to Nome, Alaska. The going proved impossible, however, as there were no roads. Remember, the Alcan Highway wasn’t completed until 1942. Even today, it’s not paved all the way. So they were taken by ship to Valdez, Alaska, and from there, on to Japan where they drove across, the first time a car had done so. The DeDion was withdrawn from the competition during the crossing.

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After crossing Japan, they were shipped to Vladivostok. By then, only three cars were left, the Thomas Flyer, the Protos and the Züst. The Motobloc that had broken down in Iowa was sent to San Francisco by train and disqualified.
As difficult as the journey had been so far, the worst was yet to come. According to accounts, “The tundra of Siberia and Manchuria was an endless quagmire. The spring thaw made progress difficult. Sometimes forward progress was measured in feet rather than miles.” At one point, the Thomas could only make 15 miles a day. The Protos was leading in Russia, but Schuster in the Thomas Flyer was determined to catch up and overtake it. Finally as he was passing the Protos, the German car got mired in mud up to its hubcaps. Whereupon, Schuster hooked up a chain and pulled the Protos out. Koeppen broke out a bottle of champagne and toasted their fellowship and American sportsmanship.

After leaving Russia, the roads through Europe were somewhat better. According to Schuster, “The final dash began on July 30 from Liege, Belgium to Paris.” The German Protos had arrived in Paris on July 26, but was penalized 30 days and scored second. The Thomas arrived at 8 pm on July 30. Due to the penalty, the Thomas was proclaimed the victor. A tremendous crowd saw the Flyer drive down the Boulevard Poissoniere to the Le Matin office. It had won the longest race in history having traveled 13,341 miles in 169 days. That record still stands more than 100 years later!

The 1908 New York to Paris race was covered by the sponsoring newspaper with daily front-page accounts. The event helped to establish the reliability of automobiles as a viable method of long-distance transportation. In addition, it brought attention to the need for better roads.
A 2008 TV documentary was titled The Greatest Auto Race on Earth and the 1965 motion picture, The Great Race, both based on the 1908 race.
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[Source: Art Evans]