The Race That Sold The Car To America

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

On a cold winter morning in February 1908, six cars lined up in Times Square, attempting to be the first to drive from New York to Paris, the long way round. Lindsey Lauren Visser tells Don how teams from the US, France, Italy and Germany attempted to complete the race, faced with adverse weather, a distinct lack of roads, and sabotage.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's 1908
0:02.0	1908 and we're in New York City in Times Square on a very cold February morning.
0:08.0	Six automobiles, well maybe motor carriages is more the fitting term,
0:12.0	the invention's still in its early days.
0:14.7	They are lined up. They're driving team seated, ready to set out on what will surely be the
0:19.1	most ambitious competition any will ever undertake. A marathon race from New York City to Paris, France.
0:26.0	The long way, headed west. The occupants are bundled up in a freezing air.
0:31.0	The cars have no roofs, windows, or windshields. They are crammed
0:35.4	full of provisions for a journey calculated to last about a month, only for those who
0:40.1	eventually complete the course, it will take a lot longer than that.
0:43.7	Thongs of New Yorkers pack the streets.
0:46.2	Reports put the number at 250,000 and as everyone grows impatient,
0:50.7	the president of the local auto club seizes the starter pistol and fires.
0:55.7	And they're off.
0:56.7	It's the great race of man and machine against time, weather, terrain, and human sabotage, in the days long before gas stations, or for that matter,
1:06.4	paved roads. decades before the first organized stock car races were held on the hard-packed beaches of Daytona, Florida.
1:25.6	Before there was a brickyard in Indianapolis, before there was Lamons, before Formula One, there
1:31.0	was The Great Race. an epic motoring marathon that would challenge a group of
1:36.6	international drivers and their custom built cars to compete across the world from
1:41.6	New York City to Paris France and if that sounds like a
1:44.8	GPS fever dream of course it was and it was happening in 1908 the first year
1:50.6	Henry Ford introduced the model T which would go on to make the automobile
	...

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