Motor racing was fraught with danger in the early 20th century. Races took place on the long, straight, main roads between cities and were impossible to police. Hazards included spectators on the road, non-race traffic and poor-quality roads.
The disastrous 1903 Paris-to-Madrid race almost ended the sport, when as many as 10 casualties, among participants and spectators, led to the event being terminated early at Bordeaux.
So the fourth Gordon Bennett Cup Race, held within six weeks of the Paris-Madrid race, gained a new significance. The sudden notoriety of motor racing meant that the newspapers were full of the event, with public opinion divided over whether it should go ahead.
There had already been difficulties over the staging of the race. The event was first held in France in 1900 and, unlike other races, in which manufacturers competed against each other, it was run by three drivers representing each competing country: France, the US, Germany and Britain. The rules stated that the winning country had to stage the next race, and the contest of the previous year had been won by Selwyn Francis Edge, representing Britain in a Napier car. But it proved impossible to hold the race in Britain.
Opposition to motoring was strong at this time in Great Britain, and the speed limit of 12mph meant that any race would have been a serious breach of the law. It was therefore decided to hold the race in Ireland, where it would form the centrepiece of a fortnight of motoring contests.
Edge was a record-breaking automotive and marine racer. In 1907, he broke the 24-hour endurance speed record at the Brooklands circuit in Surrey, covering 1,581 miles at an average speed of 65.9mph. The record was set in a Napier car.
He was friends with Montague Napier and in 1898 Edge asked Napier to carry out some improvements to his Panhard et Levassor car. In 1899 Edge and Harvey du Cros formed the Motor Vehicle Company in order to sell cars made by Napier & Son.
Edge started to use Napier racing cars and in 1901 entered the Gordon Bennett Cup but was disqualified for using foreign-made tyres. He was disqualified once more, in 1903, for obtaining assistance from onlookers.
He sold his company, SF Edge, to Napier in 1912 and included an agreement not to be involved in motor manufacturing for seven years. When this expired in 1919 he started to build up a shareholding in AC Cars, gaining full control in 1922. He sold his interest in AC in 1929 and took no further business interest in the industry.
There were significant differences between the 1903 Paris-Madrid and Gordon Bennett races. The track chosen for the Gordon Bennett was a closed circuit that could be policed. It was closed to all non-race traffic from 6am on the morning of the event, and policemen and soldiers formed a barrier along the entire track.
Each quarter-mile of track had two members of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and two members of the local district council to superintend it. Some £1,500 had been spent on preparing the track by removing gullies, sharp bridges and corners.
The race was a success, and saw only one, non-fatal, accident. The event continued to be held annually, but was soon overshadowed by the new French race, the Grand Prix. This was first held in 1906, and has proved a lasting and popular format for racing.
The Napier Archive is held in the IMechE library. If you wish to access it, email archive@imeche.org. We also have lots of images of early cars and racing freely available on our picture library site, https://vads.ac.uk/collections/IMECHE.html
Did you know?
Gordon Bennett has lived on in popular culture as a phrase used to express frustration. James Gordon Bennett acquired a vast fortune from his journalist father, the founder of the New York Herald, and he proceeded to spend it on air and road racing. Stories abound of his excessive exploits. The phrase Gordon Bennett was probably first used as an expletive in the novel You’re in the Racket Too in 1937.