The legend of the Gordon-Bennett Cup, 120 years on!

The 120th anniversary of the Gordon Bennett Cup is the occasion for a temporary exhibition on this unprecedented international event in Auvergne.

A retrospective presented by l'Aventure Michelin...

A mythical race

To give promotional lift to the nascent automobile industry, the larger-than-life playboy owner of the New York Herald James Gordon Bennett created the very first international auto race, with countries competing via their own national carmakers.

Frenchman Léon Théry won the 1904 edition in Germany, which under race rules meant it fell to France to host the following year’s race, scheduled for 5^th July 1905. The stakes clearly rose beyond straight sport to take on political and economic significance, and the Michelin brothers stepped up to the challenge, proposing to organize the event in their Puy-de-Dôme backyard.

They designed a mountainous course outside Clermont-Ferrand, thus coming up with the Auvergne circuit.

This international event created a buzz of excitement, the likes of which Clermont-Ferrand had never seen before — more than 80,000 spectators from around the world lined the course, the city’s octroi collectors registered 5,000 cars (total French output back then was no more than the 4,000 cars a year), and the local education authority even brought the date for sitting the baccalauréat exams forward to 28 June so that it did not clash with race day.

Budding champions

French children joined the movement in 1905, with a race held on a section of the main-event Auvergne circuit course, down the Côte de la Baraque. They modelled their soapbox gravity racers on cars driven by their illustrious heroes, and the winner—surname Sabin—raced his own version of a “Pope-Toledo”, complete with wheels from a baby carriage and a crankwheel for steering.

The Auvergne race circuit

The challenge proposed by Michelin was very different from the preceding editions. The 137-km track was essentially a circuit through a mountainous area, and therefore featured hundreds of corners.

The name of the game was not to flaunt the power of the race cars, which could already clock over 150 kph, but to showcase the skill of the drivers and—crucially—the roadholding performance of the tires.

The winner would be the team that completed the four laps of the circuit in the fastest time.

With thousands of spectators expected to attend, Michelin thought ahead, and put together a booklet and guide mapping out the circuit and listing the competitors entered, together with information on things to see, where to stay, and what to eat in the Auvergne—amounting, essentially, to a tourist guide.

Britain in green

The United States in red

France in blue

Germany in white

Austria in yellow and black

Italy in black

Each nation

Prestigious rivals competing

A series of qualifiers were held a month ahead of the race to select the best three race cars to enter for each country. Each of the six nations competing picked their very best carmakers, their very best equipment manufacturers, and their very best drivers—all considered heroes recruited to defend their nation’s honour.

Camille Jenatzy raced a Mercedes for Germany, but was forced to abandon on the third lap.

La passerelle au dessus du chemin de fer du Cratère.

Meticulously prepared

Once the race course has been mapped out, it had to be made safely practicable and properly marshalled for both the public and the competitors—an effort that required three temporary bridges raised over railway lines, 23 kilometres of wire fencing, 11 kilometres of wooden-stake palisades, and more.

In the months leading up to the race, the carmaker teams and drivers came to recon the course, and they—like the local residents and race-day spectators—had to be briefed on safety to ensure harmonious coordination and cohabitation.

A tented village was erected in the Laschamps plain ready for race day, and featured grandstands seating up to 10,000 spectators, a newsroom equipped with telephone and telegraph for 300-odd reporters, plus bars for refreshments, restaurants and eateries, and even shops.

However, on the eve of the race, a tornado hit the Auvergne, destroying much of the facilities at Laschamps. However, hundreds of workers worked through the night to repair the damage, and on the morning of 5^th July, at 6 a.m., the starting flag was waved bang on time!

Complaint for a crushed chicken...

To avoid any problems, the Automobile-Club d'Auvergne had decided to ask each manufacturer for a provision of 200 francs to compensate the inhabitants of the circuit for the damage caused by the ‘crushing of birds by competitors’. A crushed chicken would be paid one franc, a duck one franc fifty and a goose two francs.

A winning team

Georges Richard and Henri Brasier entered 3 cars (allocated numbers 1, 11 and 21)

The battle for the win was bitterly contested, especially between Léon Théry’s Brasier and Vincento Lancia’s Fiat.

Even though the Italian driver posted the fastest lap time (1:34:57s), the Frenchman ultimately won the race, at an average speed of 78.4 kph.

Michelin also pulled out all the stops. On top of its traditional slick tire, Michelin debuted: “grip-sole tires that performed incredibly well. I saw the tires withstand maddeningly harsh braking that should normally have blew apart any less-than-seamless assembly of fabric, rubber and steel rivets. Bibendum’s latest creation deservedly warrants all the plaudits”, as reported by Maurice Chérié, special envoy dispatched to the race for La France Automobile.

Michelin also deployed a smartly-engineered system for changing tires in just 3 minutes, when competitors would take 7 to 10.

It set up specially hard-surfaced bays at strategic places, where four crews of three men would change the tires (one crew per tire) while mechanics scrambled to refuel with petrol and top up the oil and water.

A hive of activity, but run like clockwork!

The Gordon Bennett Cup carried a reputation as a major international event with a massive audience, and advertisers jumped on the opportunity, producing postcards, flyers, hand fans, cups, balloons, toys, sweet tins, brooches, medals... anything they could find to help associate their brands with the prestige of the race. Michelin, as co-organizer, counted among the most prolific advertisers, producing collectable memorabilia that survives to this day.