History Repeats Itself!

The plan was simple; retrace the route of the 1908 New York to Paris Race which George Schuster of Springville, NY won for the United States with the Buffalo built Thomas Flyer.  

The original Race started February 12, 1908 in Times Square with 250,000 spectators cheering on six teams from Germany, France, Italy and the United States.

On April 14, 2011 Auxiliarist Jeff Mahl, George Schuster’s Great Grandson began World Race 2011 in Times Square, New York City with 8 US Teams and 4 World Teams headed west for Paris.

On the way to California, they stopped at the National Automobile Museum where the original champion 1907 Model 35 Thomas Flyer was brought out of its exhibit area to lead the racers through the city of Reno, NV.  The racers reached San Francisco on April 27th.

The cars were then loaded on a container ship bound for Beijing, China and on June 4th the World Race resumed for the Asia leg of the event.  This would be the toughest part, with obstacles including language, roads, international border crossings, mechanical breakdowns, and even illness to contend with.  China alone is wider than the United States at over 3,400 miles.  Some of the roads were excellent, but there were others like a 55 mile section which took 10½ hours to navigate.

The border crossing from China into Kazakhstan (a distance of less than 1 mile) took a full day.  The central Asian country of Kazakhstan was over 1,000 miles as racers made their way north to Russia.  The distance and poor road conditions were starting to take a toll on the vehicles, with many breakdowns very similar to the 1908 Race. 

A crank shaft bearing failed on the 1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe, just as the same bearing failed on the 1908 Italian Zust.  The left headlight was broken by a pigeon on the 1967 VW Beetle in Russia, like the left headlight was broken by a pigeon on the 1907 Flyer near Moscow.  The 2007 Chevy Corvette needed to be transported on a car carrier due to a bad stretch of road as the 1908 German Protos was transported by rail car.  The 1929 Ford Model A suffered several flat tires, as did the Thomas Flyer.

While in Moscow, the World Teams stopped for a photo-op at the Kremlin Wall.  The 2007 Chevy Corvette is multi-fuel capable at one point was even running on Russian vodka.  From Moscow it was on to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany with a stop in Berlin.  Then the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and finally to the finish line at the Eiffel Tower, Paris arriving July 21, 2011.  We covered the world route in 65 days.

One of the best aspects of the journey was the opportunity to meet people in places tourists normally never get to go.  What we found was that the vast majority we encountered were friendly, honest and hard working people who were as curious about us as we were of them.

For a complete account of the daily adventure you can visit:

http://worldrace2011.posterous.com/

All of the competitors agreed that even with the many difficulties we encountered, the Racers of 1908 stand apart in their accomplishment.  We had roads, fuel, food, communications, and even FedEx to get necessary parts.  In 1908, they had to rely on their own resourcefulness and ingenuity to cover the 22,000 miles in the record time of 169 days.  That record has stood unchallenged for 103 years, and in the minds of the 2011 racers the 1908 record is still unbroken!

 

 

~gja 09-30-11