8 replies to this topic

[Reedy]

Does anyone know what was the very first racing car ever built as opposed to a road car converted for racing.

[Allan Lupton]

Since early races were held on roads, the cars were much as road cars (rather than "converted").
Probably the cars you should think of are the first that were built to comply with a formula (such as the "four-inch" rule for the TT ).

[f1steveuk]

I'd "plump" for Jenatzy's "Le Jamais Contente", although it only raced the clock................

[fines]

Very good question, and one I have asked myself a few times. Perhaps there's no real answer, as the first races were certainly run with ordinary road cars rather than special racing cars, but that was a line that was very soon to become blurred. Take, for example, the Panhard-Levassor and Peugeot two-seaters that competed in the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux race - who's to say if they were primarily built for the road or for competition?

Other than that, the record cars come to mind: Jeantaud's and Jenatzy's electric cars of 1898/99 certainly don't qualify as road cars!

[David McKinney]

I read somewhere that the 1898 torpedo-bodied Bollées were purpose-built for that year's Paris-Amsterdam race

[Vicuna]

I always liked the answer to the question - 'when did the first motor race take place?'

Answer: 'About 5 minutes after the world's second car was fifnished'

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by Vicuna
I always liked the answer to the question - 'when did the first motor race take place?'

Answer: 'About 5 minutes after the world's second car was fifnished'

That's assuming the two cars were on the same continent!

[Vicuna]

Ya

[D-Type]

The legend says that in 1903 the cars developed by Mercedes for the Gordon Bennet race were destroyed in a fire so they converted a team of their standard 60hp road cars instead. So the concept of a specialist "racing car" was clearly well established by then.

At the other extreme, were the works Jaguars (D-types that is) the last purpose-built racing cars to be driven to Le Mans, the Nürburgring and other major sports car races?