The Gordon-Bennett-Trophy

During the race Paris-Vienna 1902 the Gordon Bennett Cup  took place, too. This trophy, donated 1898 by James Gordon-Bennett, owner of the "New York Herald" and created by the Parisian jeweller and artist André Ancoc as a challenge cup worth 12.000 Francs, should serve to stimulate the competition of the European automotive industry in pure speed races. Until this time only France had been sending his drivers into speed races. The technical regulations for the Gordon Bennett Cup were according to the development by this time, the weight of the car had to be min. 400 kg, max. 1000 kg. The most important prescription was, that only 3 cars per nation were allowed to participate, all components had to be a 100% product and the drivers had to be members of acknowledged clubs of this country. Therefore only 3 French cars, out of 27 French car producers, were starting in the race from Paris to Vienna, as well as one English car.

As "mounting" was considered to be "produced", Mercedes transferred all components of their racing cars to Wiener Neustadt for assembling at the Austrian Daimler Motor Company and thereby created the curious "Austrian Mercedes racing cars" 1904.

1905 this trophy was given back to Gordon Bennett by France and from 1906 on the "Grand Price of France" was being held - the "Grand Prix" was born!

copyright © 2002 michael gepperth