On the 24th of May,1903, as the sun rose, the streets of Paris saw the start of an ill-fated experiment in motor racing, organized by the Automobile Club de France (ACF) and the Spanish Automobile Club, Automóvil Club Español.
The French government had not been entirely positive about the prospect of the 1307km Paris-Madrid road race taking place on public streets, but not only was the King of Spain advocating heavily for the race, there was the fact that there were over 25,000 French workers involved in the car industry at the time who were in support of their industry being raised to the highest profile, as well as representatives from many local towns along the route who would all stand to benefit from this international focus on a French Motor event.
Registrations opened with 4 weight categories for the vehicles. Places filled up surprisingly quickly. Of the 315 enrolled vehicles, 224 turned up on the day for the challenge. These comprised of 88 heavy cars (up to 1 tonne), 49 mid-weight motors, 33 voiturettes and 54 motorbikes. The vehicles were classed according to weight before the addition of the driver / mechanic and without any extra equipment on board. Each car was to be timed to ascertain placement on the leader board, with the starting time taken into consideration in the calculation. They were to be subjected to an entirely ‘closed pen’ situation overnight at the end of each stage with no maintenance or repairs being allowed outside of the racing time; an official would escort the vehicle to a secure stand where no one could try to adjust it.
The vehicles were to leave the Parisian starting point at 3am, before the oppressive heat of the sun, (it had not rained for at least 2 weeks and the rough roads were very dry and dusty) the start times were allocated by way of randomised selection according to when the entry application had initially been made. This later turned out to be a catastrophic error as cars with massive differences in potential speed, some mighty 4-cylinder engines capable of 140km/h, were released behind little voiturettes and small motors, creating hundreds of overtaking incidents which would prove to be disastrous.
There were many famous names in attendance and great marques were represented: Mercedes had 11 cars, Renault had two, driven by the brothers Marcel and Louis. Also to be seen : Panhard-Levassor, De Dion-Bouton, Fiat, Darracq, Napier, Charron Giradot, Mors and De Cauville, all present amongst the starters.
The public attendance for the start of the race was not anticipated to be in the numbers that turned up that fateful day; over 100,000 people lined the first few kilometres of the streets and the railway stations surrounding Versaille (where the route would head) were reported to be ‘swarmed’ with people desperate to see the thrilling race. The sheer numbers of people who turned up that day worried the organisers who pushed back the starting time in order to ensure that there was more daylight than darkness as the vehicles powered off.
Officials tried to water down the dusty roads for the first few kilometres, but it was quickly evident that this was going to be a very dangerous day.
Soldiers were employed to try to control the crowds but there was no real cultural understanding yet of the extreme dangers of road racing and people, including children, moved into the middle of the roads, around corners, to try to see the vehicles as they approached. Dogs were wandering in towns and villages. There were many accidents that day, not all of them well documented but trees were hit, cars overturned, vehicles caught on fire, axels were broken and drivers were badly injured. Race rules did not allow any change of driver, so it has been reported that some of the cars kept on going despite the driver being compromised in terms of strength and sight – remember that some of these machines were frightfully heavy and it would have been exhausting to manoeuvre them around the fast, tight roads of the hot and dusty race.
Spectators were also very vulnerable and many were injured. In one incident, a child who ran out into the road was saved by a soldier who lost his life in the process, as well as the life of another spectator who was hit when the oncoming car swerved from the commotion.
News trickled in throughout the day and a picture was building of the extent of the mayhem. Drivers were pulling out, cars were crashing, Mercedes hit a tree, the only female driver, Camille du Gast, who had been in 8th place, stopped to assist another, probably saving the life of a crashed driver and finished 45th as a result.
Louis Renault reached Bordeaux at noon, he was safe. However, it was becoming clear that his brother Marcel, and Rene the mechanic, should have also arrived and their absence was concerning. They had been almost in the lead at Poitier, an incredible climb up through the ranks from the 60th position that they had started in, but one which tells a story of many fast, overtaking moments during that fateful day.
Indeed, their absence at the Bordeaux closing stage was rightfully being feared when news arrived that they had suffered a terrible crash on a bend coming into Peyre. Vauthier was thrown some distance from the car managing to survive the resulting fractures, but Marcel was rendered unconscious from the extent of his injuries and sadly, was never to regain consciousness. Marcel Renault died 48hrs later.
The entire race was abandoned that night. The officials decided, after an emergency cabinet meeting failed to grant permission to transfer cars to the Spanish border and restart there, that there was no other option then to cancel the remaining stages and end the race in Bordeaux that same day. Over half of the entrants had pulled out or had crashed, 12 people were presumed dead that evening (in fact, 8 were killed – 3 spectators and 5 racers) and more than 100 people had been seriously injured.
The post-race enquiry cited the following causes: Speed; people were simply not used to the speeds that were being demonstrated on roads shared by horses, carts and cattle, even railway trains of the day did not travel as fast as some of the vehicles the registered for the event. Dust; the weather conditions had left a deadly, disorientating layer of dust which plumed up and obscured the driver’s vision in critical moments. People; the number of spectators and the need to control them had been grossly underestimated.
Some newspapers swiftly led with commentary on the disaster and opinion over the folly and danger of this modern car fashion, and the effect of the events went deeply into societal policy with motions being proposed to restrict road speed travel on major routes to 40km/h, however, it is somewhat sobering to realise that it was not until 1921, some 18 years later, that driving on the right was officially enshrined in French law, a fact that sheds more light on the mayhem and danger faced by those who were part of the infamous ‘Race of Death’.
The images here are of a life-sized sculpture of Marcel Renault and Rene Vauthier driving on that fateful day.
It was designed and made by Julian in core ten steel for a private collector in The United Kingdom.
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