Editor's Letter: The Greatest Auto Race: New York to Paris, Via Mongolia
October 1, 2006
"I like people who do something, not the good safe man who stays at home," Theodore Roosevelt once said. According to Julie Fenster’s Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race, Roosevelt delivered his speech to a crowd of 250,000 New Yorkers that had assembled in Times Square to witness the commencement of the longest race in the history of the then-fledgling automobile industry.
Officially, it was called the "Greatest Auto Race on Earth." Six cars from four different countries competed in the contest, and only half would eventually cross the finish line in Paris some 22,000 miles (35,000 km) down the road. In an age before the interstate highway system, simply driving coast-to-coast would have been an extraordinary feat.
"At the time, automobiles were a relatively unproven technology," says Bill Ewing, CEO of Rally Partners Inc., which is organizing a centennial race (www.greatrace2008.com) in part to commemorate the original road trip. While the 1908 race demonstrated that cars were a feasible alternative to rail transportation—at the time, the country’s primary means of mass transit—the 2008 race also will be a rolling exhibition of possible replacements for the traditional gasoline engine. "We’re setting out to do the same thing," Ewing says, "and that’s to prove that technologies exist today with alternative fuel cars that are viable for the mass market."
Dubbed "Great Race World 35,000 km," the event will again commence in Manhattan on February 12—Lincoln’s birthday—of 2008 and end some 80 days later at the Eiffel Tower. To reach their destination, the cars will need to travel approximately 400 miles per day across rugged terrain. The circuitous route, the details of which are still being finalized, will wind its way westward through San Francisco, then cross the Pacific by container ship to Shanghai, China, and then proceed to such exotic destinations as Ulaanbaatar and Irkutsk. From Beijing to Berlin and Prague to Paris, the Great Race World promises the ultimate in automotive adventuring.
The cars themselves will be divided into two categories: classic, or anything built before 1969; and innovative technology, or vehicles powered by something other than the conventional internal combustion engine. "We expect a diverse mix," says Ewing, "from hybrid electric and biofuels to lean-burn technologies for gas and diesel that are not yet in production."
Only 40 teams (20 in the classic division and 20 in innovative division) will be allowed to enter, and the deadline to apply is December 31, 2006. The entry fee for a two-person team is $65,000 for the classic division or $40,000 for private entries to the innovative division ($75,000 for corporate). But the rewards far outweigh the risk: namely, a $1 million innovation-vehicle prize and a $500,000 purse for the classic division. "But to finish is to win," Ewing promises. If for no other reason, President Roosevelt—no stranger to adventure himself—would like you for it.
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