PAST IMPERFECT:IN 1907 the French motor industry was in despair. Believing France to be the unrivalled centre of motor manufacture, this had not been reflected in the motor sport events of the year. The French Grand Prix had been won in an Italian Fiat driven by Nazzaro, who had also taken the Kaiserpreis while the Peking to Paris epic had been won by Prince Borghese's Itala, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
These ‘failures’ by the products of the French motor industry hugely affected sales of French cars and so it was that a group of industrialists and newspaper editors put their heads together to devise an event which would clearly demonstrate the superiority of French cars.
The result was the Coupe du Monde, a sensational round-world race beginning in New York and travelling westwards via Chicago, Reno, the Mojave desert, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. From there a steamer would take the cars to Valdez in Alaska. The inhospitable roads of Alaska would take the cars to Fairbanks, then down the frozen Yukon river, on to Nome and across the Bearing Strait either on the ice or by ship to Siberia. Then the cars would follow the trail blazed by the competitors in the Peking to Paris race. The total distance was 22,000 miles and the start date was February 12th 1908.
Twelve cars entered, but by starting day this had been reduced to six, three of which were French – a 30hp De Dion Bouton, a 30hp Motobloc and a little one-cylinder 12hp Sizaire-Naudin. Ranged against these were a 35hp German Protos-Motorenbau, an Italian 40hp Züst and an American 60hp Thomas. The Thomas had only been added to the entry list a few days before the start and was a standard roadster model.
Fifty thousand people watched the start in Manhattan. The cars soon experienced difficult weather as they moved up the Hudson, leading to the first use of snow-chains in history. Before New York State was left behind, the diminutive Sizaire-Naudin had dropped out with a damaged differential. Thirteen days and 1,403 miles later, the Thomas was leading, while in Iowa, the Monobloc gave up.
Forty-one days after the start, the Thomas drove into San Francisco some 11 days ahead of its nearest rival. It became clear that a passage through Alaska was impractical and the remaining cars went by steamer to Siberia, and from there to Japan. The Thomas ‘Flyer’ crossed Japan and reached Vladivostok on April 21st. There, the final French car, the De Dion, was withdrawn and eventually the race became a heady international rivalry between the American and German entries. In the end the Thomas ‘Flyer’ triumphed in one of the most remarkable motor races in history and proved that the American automobile was now the equal of any car produced in Europe.