(12-07-2024, 11:15 PM)Mick Wrote: What's the greatest margin of victory of any automobile road race?
26 days. 1908, New York to Paris road race. America (manufacturer was Thomas), Italy (Zust), Germany (Protos) each enter a car, France enters three cars (De Dion-Bouton, Motobloc, Sizaire-Naudin). The race starts in Times Square, drivers go west across the USA, then Japan, Russia (Vladivostok), then to Europe.
1908 New York to Paris Race
The race started on February 12, 1908 before a crowd of 250,000. The first French car dropped out after 96 miles. Only three cars made it past Vladivostok, none of them French. The Thomas made it to the west coast of the U. S. in 41 days, 8 hours, 15 minutes, a winter-time record for a cross-country drive. The Germans technically arrived first but they avoided Japan and shipped their car part of the way by rail, so they were penalized thirty days. The Italian team arrived in September, 1908.
The American team, a Thomas Flyer driven by George Schuster won by 26 days, arriving on July 30, having driven 16,700 km. The photo below is of the winning vehicle, now at the National Automobile Museum in Reno.