the great race of 1908

one of the books i posted about (and read) recently entitled ”the great race”: has another story tucked inside it - well several actually - but the one i was going to focus on on was to have been the ”2008 great race” event. scheduled to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1908 “great race”, the 2008 edition was unfortunately postponed as the approval to travel through china was recalled and the requisite permits placed on hold. apparently the centenary race has been rescheduled for 2009 so for now, let’s wander back inside the original race.

to help the couch-adventurer more fully appreciate the extraordinary nature of this race given the time it was held in, it is important to retain in the forefront of your mind that the technological and human factors impinged on not only the success of the vehicles and individuals involved but more often the very lives of those involved. to help get inside this monumental experience, an excellent blog has been written by jeff mahl detailing the daily exploits of a team driving a buffalo built thomas flyer.

the four-cylinder model designated as the "thomas flyer" had proven to be very reliable, so when it was decided to enter the 1908 new york to paris (round-the-world) race, a brand new 1907 thomas flyer was removed from the showroom floor. extra gas tanks were mounted, spare tires strapped on, and some minor modifications made. what's extraordinary about that? think about any car throughout history that could have "minor modifications" done to it and then send it around the world under the conditions these vehicles experienced! the car had a top speed of sixty miles per hour but its concessions to passenger comfort were somewhat minimal and so i doubt that that speed was ever attained and if so certainly not for long distances.

because there were often no roads, the flyer was designated as union pacific train #49.  rules forbid riding the rails, so they straddled them bumping along tie to tie for hundreds of miles! can you imagine the pain, the horrible anticipation of each kerthump!   incedibly, a union pacific conductor even rode with the thomas! in the end, the thomas covered 12,427 land miles (over 22,000 miles overall, including sea voyages) in 170 days.

a beautiful photo gallery is hosted by the new york times. google maps has this splendid map with a journal attached to it written by george schuster, sr. george, the only crew member to travel the entire distance, drove his car into paris to win the race. much more detail can be read at this page. if you have even the slightest buzz in your heart when you read this man’s gripping tale then you can sleep a deep and contented sleep knowing full well that you’ve still got that tickle of adventure that drives people beyond what is acceptable, sensible, practical and even what is necessary! in short, you know that you’re still very much alive!

if you’d like to see the remarkable story of one of the machine’s that raced in the original great race and its eventual restoration then pop over to autonet for a really fascinating read.