Le Rallye des Pionniers, 9th February, 2019

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1ST STAGING OF THE RALLYE DES PIONNIERS

On 9th February 2019 Peter Auto will bring back to life the early days of the first motor car races with the 1st Rallye des Pionniers reserved for pre-1919 historic cars. They will depart from Paris. It’s time to begin practising winding the starting handles!

France was where the first working automobile, Cugnot’s steam wagon invented in 1769 by the eponymous engineer, saw the light of day. Then followed the development of the motor car industry in the second half of the 19th century so it can boast of having been an innovative nation in this field. Inventors vied with one another in terms of ingenuity and daring as they exploited the opportunities offered by the amazing progress of science and technology. Some believed in steam, others in the internal combustion engine. Their names were Edouard Delmare-Deboutville, the father of the first internal combustion engine, Amédée Bollée, Léon Serpollet and the De Dion-Bouton et Trépardoux mechanical construction company whose research into steam engines a few years earlier had found numerous applications. From inventors of genius like the Marquis Albert de Dion, Emile Lévassor and Serpollet to industrialists like André Citroën and Louis Renault and daredevils, who in 1899 broke the 100 km/h barrier, plus artists like Ettore Bugatti, the early days of the adventure of the motor car was a really French saga.

Thus, at the end of the 19th century the number of cars circulating on French territory had increased to 350 compared to only 75 in Germany and 80 in the United States. In 1900, France became the no. 1 car manufacturer in the world with almost 50% of the total production. This era also saw the creation of the first races like Paris-Rouen in 1894. Then came the Paris-Bordeaux event in 1895 considered as the first major motor race in history due to its distance of 1178 km. From year to year more and more events started from the capital with increasingly long distances to be covered outside French borders: Paris-Marseille-Paris (1896), Paris-Dieppe and Paris-Trouville (1897), Paris-Amsterdam-Paris (1898), Paris-Berlin (1901), Paris-Vienne (1902), Paris-Madrid (1903), etc.

Up till now this story of the French motor car pioneers before WWI has not been given the recognition or celebration it deserves. Peter Auto, which has built its renown with international motor car events like Le Mans Classic, the Tour Auto Optic 2ooo and Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille, has decided to highlight this era and pay homage to it by organising the first Rallye des Pionniers in February 2019. This commemoration of the great races of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries will be reserved for cars built before 1919, as Peter Auto wishes to underline the merit of collectors who look after and breathe new life into these cars that are over 100 years old and witnesses of a unique historical and industrial heritage.

This rally will be held on Saturday 9th February during the final weekend of the Retromobile Show reckoned to be the greatest “salon” in the world dedicated to collector cars and an unmissable rendezvous for the major collectors, some of whom will be at the start of the Rallye des Pionniers. On the programme is an itinerary of around 100 km starting from Paris and finishing in a town whose name will be announced at a later date. The itinerary will be the same every year and the event will be organised as a run without any notion of competition. However, each entrant will be obliged to meet an average speed that will be defined and sent out to him/her before the start. The wintry ambiance, favourable to the legendary fur-lined coats, will probably add extra difficulties for the participants whose aim will be to see the finishing line in this rally despite the unexpected mechanical glitches from another era that may arise.

Like the British who are proud of their famous yearly London to Brighton Rally, the French can now pay tribute to a heritage and a history of which they were the pioneers!

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

Friday 8th February
- Administrative checks and scrutineering in Paris
- Cocktail dinner for the participants (place to be announced)

Saturday 9th February
- A Staggered starts from 08:00 onwards taking into account the year and power of the vehicle (10 cars every two minutes)
- Arrival of the first cars in the town hosting the finish
- Official evening

Photo by Club Teuf Teuf during Retromobile 1918, 1900 Renault Type C Course

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