Autumn 1899, France discovers a revolution on wheels. On the cobblestone streets of Paris, smoking, popping engines gather for what will become the craziest of automotive adventures. 49 cars at the start, only 21 at the finish . Imagine the carnage! These pioneers had no idea that they had just launched what would become the oldest car race in the world, an event that would inspire generations of drivers and forever transform our vision of the automobile.

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Today I'm telling you the story of the Tour de France Automobile, this legendary race that almost everyone has forgotten but which fully deserves its place in the pantheon of French motor racing. A unique competition that combined the adventure of rallying with the pure thrills of circuit racing, and which saw the birth of some of the greatest legends of our motor sport.

The first turns of the wheel: 1899, the adventure begins

Well, I need to give you some context: in 1899, the automobile was still a completely crazy bourgeois thing. Normal people traveled by horse or carriage, and here you have some lunatics organizing a 2200-kilometer race in 7 stages with machines that looked more like boilers on wheels than our modern cars.

The first winner, René de Knyff, that brave Belgian at the wheel of his Panhard et Levassor, had a rather funny peculiarity: he systematically lost his captain's cap at the start . I imagine him, this gentleman driver, trying to maintain his dignity while his hat flew off in the first few meters of the race. But hey, that didn't stop him from triumphing with an average speed of 50 km/h - yes, 50 km/h, don't laugh, it was revolutionary at the time!

A massacre on French roads

And I haven't mentioned the craziest part: out of the 49 brave cars that started, only 21 saw the finish . More than 50% retirement! Can you imagine the scene? Mechanics exploding, tires bursting, radiators overheating... It was the heroic era when starting a race was already an achievement, finishing was a miracle.

But that's exactly what made this race so special. It wasn't just a competition, it was an adventure, a challenge to the impossible. And that, ladies and gentlemen, would set the tone for the decades to come.

The evolution of a revolutionary formula

What was great about the Tour de France Automobile was that it was unlike anything else. Imagine an explosive cocktail: regularity stages on the road, frantic racing on the circuit, and breathtaking hill climbs . The drivers had to be chameleons, able to switch from driving with finesse to meet the imposed driving averages to pure attack on the circuits.

I love this idea, honestly. Today we specialize everything: there are F1 drivers, rally drivers, hill climb specialists... But in the days of the Tour de France Automobile, you had to know how to do everything. It was versatility incarnate, and it produced drivers of exceptional caliber.

An advertising showcase before its time

And then there was another fascinating aspect: this race had become a giant advertising showcase for the nascent automobile industry . Every press article was actually a disguised advertisement for the oil used, the brakes, the tires... The manufacturers had understood that winning the Tour de France Automobile was proving to the general public that their cars were solid and reliable.

It was clever, really. At a time when people needed to be convinced that the automobile wasn't just "a rich man's pleasure" but could become "a practical object of use," nothing was worth a great victory on the roads of France.

The Golden Age: When Ferrari Reigned Supreme

But the true golden age of the Tour de France Automobile took place in the 1960s. There, we're talking about something else: the greatest drivers and the most prestigious brands engaged in a fierce battle . Gérard Larrousse, Timo Mäkinen, Maurice Trintignant... only legends!

And Ferrari... ah, Ferrari! 13 victories in total during this golden era. The Prancing Horse brand dominated the event so much between 1956 and 1959 that one of its cars became eponymous: the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta "Tour de France." Alfonso de Portago in 1956, then Olivier Gendebien and Lucien Bianchi who continued in 1957, 1958 and 1959... Great art!

Gérard Larrousse's performance was particularly remarkable. This "Gentleman from Lyon," born in 1940, won the event three times: in 1969, 1971, and 1974. What amazes me about Larrousse is his absolute versatility. The guy excelled in both rallying and hillclimbing, perfectly embodying the spirit of this unique event.

Maurice Trintignant, the legendary "Pétoulet"

And then there was Maurice Trintignant, nicknamed "Pétoulet." This guy, born in 1917 in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes, was the first Frenchman in the history of Formula 1 to win a Grand Prix counting towards the world championship . Can you imagine the prestige it brought to the Tour de France Automobile when a driver of this caliber came to compete in the event?

It must be said that the level was incredible. By 1951, the event had taken on an epic dimension with courses of 3,500 to 4,000 kilometers . It was a far cry from the little Sunday rides!

Crossed destinies and tasty anecdotes

Well, I saved the best for last: the little stories that make this race so interesting. Hold on, Bernard Consten skipped his classes at HEC to listen to the Tour de France Automobile results on the radio ! This future five-time winner of the event (1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963) preferred to follow the race rather than attend classes at the prestigious business school.

And the best part of all this? It was this same Bernard Consten who would resurrect the Tour de France Automobile in 1969 after becoming president of the FFSA . Passionate about this event, which he had dominated in the 1960s, he relaunched it under the name "Tour Auto" and remained its organizer until 1980. The circle was complete!

Let's talk for a moment about this new life that began a few decades ago. You know, as a vintage car enthusiast, I can't help but think about all those legendary models that marked this race . Those Ferrari 250 GTs, those Jaguar Mk2s, those Porsche 911s... Cars that today are worth a fortune and that at the time raced on our French roads in sometimes appalling conditions.

By the way, if you are like me fascinated by these vintage cars, I have a little surprise for you. After years of collecting and selling miniature cars from this golden period, mainly in 1/43 scale , I opened my shop BernardMiniatures.fr. I have more than 1500 miniatures in stock, mostly models from the 1950s to 1999, the golden age!

Well, I'm not a big site, so I often only have one or two pieces of each model, but that's also what makes it charming. I have Ferraris of course, but also Porsches, Jaguars, models that have raced in the Tour de France Automobile... a bit of everything. Delivery is free from 75€ in France, and I make sure to wrap everything well with bubble wrap because these little cars break easily.

Go take a look at bernardminiatures.fr if you're interested - and you'll see, I have some models from the Tour de France Automobile that are really worth a look.

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Now, let's talk a little more about what almost killed this legendary race...

Interruption and Rebirth: A Story of Death and Resurrection

Because, well, all great stories have their dark sides. In 1965, the rally disappeared . Pure and simple. Times change, priorities too, and this legendary race sinks into oblivion. It makes me sad just thinking about it.

Fortunately, in 1969, it returned under the name of Tour Auto , driven by the passion of Bernard Consten as I told you. But even then, it wasn't easy. In 1986, another twist: the Tour Auto died out due to lack of sponsors . Can you imagine? This legendary race dying due to lack of money...

Patrick Peter, the savior of history

And then came 1992, and with it a certain Patrick Peter who would revive the event. But beware, in the form of a historic race for cars that participated in the original Tour de France Automobile between 1951 and 1973. Brilliant idea! Instead of trying to make something new out of something old, he created a nostalgia event that allowed us to see the real stars of the era racing.

It's a bit like resurrecting gladiators and having them fight in a restored Colosseum. You get all the magic of the original, but in a safe and contemporary setting.

The legacy of a bygone era

So, when I look at this story as a whole, I think we've lost something along the way. The Tour de France Automobile represented the pioneering spirit of the automobile , that era when every race was an adventure, when drivers had to be jacks-of-all-trades capable of adapting to any terrain.

This race accompanied the transition to the democratization of the automobile in France . It proved that these machines were not just toys for the rich, but tools capable of extraordinary performance in difficult conditions.

And that's perhaps what fascinates me most about this story: we were in a time when the impossible was just another challenge to overcome. These pilots didn't ask themselves if they would succeed; they charged headlong into the adventure.

A lesson for today

I believe we have something to learn from these pioneers. In our ultra-specialized world where everything is calibrated to the millimeter, there is something refreshing in this assumed versatility of the Tour de France Automobile. These drivers who went from the surgical precision of regularity events to the pure battle of the circuits, that commands respect.

And then this race reminds us that the automobile is first and foremost a story of passion . Bernard Consten who skips his classes to listen to the results on the radio, René de Knyff who loses his cap at each start but continues to race... These small human details that make all the difference.

So the next time you come across a Ferrari 250 GT "Tour de France" in a concours d'élégance, or you see the cars of the modern Tour Auto pass by, remember this heroic era when 49 brave souls embarked on the adventure and only 21 saw the finish . This is the spirit of the Tour de France Automobile: adventure above all, performance in adversity, and this pure passion that still makes us dream today.

Because in the end, modern technology and today's performance are all well and good, but there was something magical about that era when every turn of the wheel was a challenge, and finishing a race was a victory in itself .