Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

324 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. A BOLLÉE RACING CAR OF 1898. These machines were refused permission to compete in the race by the police authorities, but their drivers defied the regulations and went through the event. Standing by the car is M. Etienne Giraud, who used the vehicle in the general manoeuvres of that year. The Paris» Bordeaux Race, 1895. being ized annually by the various automobile clubs, and in particular by the Automobile Club de . That important body, >r, did not come into until the end of the ig year, 1895, and was really the outcome of a committee formed for the organization of a big race from Paris to Bordeaux and back, a distance of some 732 miles. It was an ambitious scheme— a wild scheme, people said at the time. If it was difficult to get these machines to go for even twenty miles without a stoppage, how would it be possible to take them all the way from Paris to Bordeaux and back ? But it was done ; and M. Levässor, driving per- sonally throughout the journey, covered the distance in 48 hours 48 minutes, at an average speed of about 15 miles an hour. His car was typical of the best design of the period. In its main lines it was remark- ably similar to the cars of the present day, especially in the arrangement of the engine and gearing. It possessed a vertical motor in front, under a bonnet, driving through a clutch and a change-speed gear to a counter-shaft, on which was the differential (the device for allowing the back wheels to revolve at different speeds when rounding a corner), and thence by side-chains to the back wheels. If a modern chain-driven car be examined, it will be found that the main details are placed as in Levassor’s No. 5, though naturally greatly modified and improved. But in many ways it differed from the luxurious carriages of to-day. The wheel - base was about 4 feet 2 inches (modern cars have a wheel-base of 10 feet and more), the wheels were large and solid-tyred, and steering was by lever, demanding the most careful attention to avoid accidents, and the highest speed on the level was about 20 miles an hour. In the following year the committee, now formed into the Automobile Club de France, organized the great race from Paris to Mar- seilles and back, run out and home in ten stages. Thirty- Paris- two cars started, and after Marseilles- ’ Pans, 1896. passing through the most ex- traordinary tribulations, due to a terrific storm which beset them on the second and third stages, fifteen reached Marseilles. It should be noted, though, that of these fifteen fourteen reached Paris again, so that the numerous failures were probably due in great part to the very unpropitious weather. The winning car, Mayade’s Panhard, had a four- cylinder engine of eight horse-power, and weighed very much the same as the racing- car of to-day. Little change took place in the following year, and there was no race of any importance, so