If you’ve ever seen the 1965 movie, The Great Race, then you might be interested to know that it was inspired by this event, the New York to Paris Race of 1908. Six cars participated, three from France, the other three from Germany, Italy and the United States. They departed from Times Square on February 12th to begin a journey across terrain very different from today, with little in the way of defined roads to travel. The teams sometimes even resorted to driving on railroad tracks, bouncing over the ties one by one. The race concluded when the 1907 Thomas Flyer driven by the U.S. team rolled into Paris on July 30, 169 days after their departure.
