When was the first ever automobile event?

[FIA]

When was the first ever automobile event?

weather it was a race, rally, time trial or whatever

Because this question has troubled, some say it was 1885, some say it was 1894, some say it was 1895, so when was the first ever automobile event.

Because cars were around for quite a few years before this, so could there have been events before these years.

[Mark]

I think the first official, organised event was 1894. But of course there would have been small scale unofficial (or even illegal) races from the moment the car was first invented.

I would imagine the first race was probably in a car factory between two mechanics

[FIA]

Yeah, I see your point it's just annoying we can't find out like local races or any national events that could have happened around that time.

[D-Type]

The trouble is that the first event would have been some form of motor show and perhaps the cars gave a demonstration.

According to the Guinness Book of Car Facts and Feats
"The first road race between mechanically propelled vehicles took place in the USA in July 1878, seven years before the petrol engine was invented. Run over 201 miles between Green Bay and Madison, in Wisconsin, the contest included long-haul and ploughing tests as well as the race. It attracted six entries, all steam-powered. and two starters, both virtually road locomotives. An Oshkosh built by Dr. J. Carhart and driven by F. Shomer and A. M. Farrand won the race in 33hrs 27 minutes, averaging 6 mph. while a Green Bay built and driven by E. P. Cowles retired 20 miles from the finish after coverering part of the journey by railroad. The winner received $5,000 prize money"
I wonder what that would be worth today?

I'm sure you know of the 1894 Paris-Rouen Reliability Trial and the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race.

However in The Chequered Flag Ivan Rendall writes
"On 20 April 1887 Le Velocipede organised the first ever motor race in Paris. Vount Jules deDion - the sole entrant - won on his steam quadricycle.

[FIA]

The trouble is that the first event would have been some form of motor show and perhaps the cars gave a demonstration.

According to the Guinness Book of Car Facts and Feats
"The first road race between mechanically propelled vehicles took place in the USA in July 1878, seven years before the petrol engine was invented. Run over 201 miles between Green Bay and Madison, in Wisconsin, the contest included long-haul and ploughing tests as wellas the race. It attracted six entries, all steam-powered. and two starters, both virtually road locomotives. An Oshkosh built by Dr. J. Carhart and driven by F. Shomer and A. M. Farrand won the race in 33hrs 27 minutes, averaging 6 mph. while a green Bay built and driven by E. P. Cowles retired 20 miles from the finish after covrering part of the journey by railroad. The winner received $5,000 prize money" I wonder what that would be worth today?

I'm sure you know of the 1894 Paris-Rouen Reliability Trial and the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race.

However in The Chequered Flag Ivan Rendall writes
"On 20 April 1887 Le Velocipede organised the first ever motor race in Paris. Vount Jules deDion - the sole entrant - won on his steam quadricycle.

Thank You D-Type that is really interesting, I will look out for this book in the shops. Perhaps it was an unofficial race and that it why in 1887 they created the "first ever" race.

[D-Type]

You'll probably have a job finding either of them. The Guinness Book of Car Facts and Feats dates to 1971 and The Chequered Flag to 1993.

I don't understand what you mean by an unofficial race. In the 1880's there weren't any motor clubs or the FIA to make a race 'official'. So surely any organised race must have been official.

Benz patented his car in 1886 and made his first sale in 1887 so any race, trial, show or demonstration of internal combustion engined cars must be later than that.

[FIA]

You'll probably have a job finding either of them. The Guinness Book of Car Facts and Feats dates to 1971 and The Chequered Flag to 1993.

I don't understand what you mean by an unofficial race. In the 1880's there weren't any motor clubs or the FIA to make a race 'official'. So surely any organised race must have been official.

True, accept my point is there was no FIA or motor clubs, but it seems legit.

[D-Type]

Most of the early motoring events were sponsored by newspapers so that gives them some legitimacy as they were definitely organised events and presumably the organising newspaper had to obtain permission from someone to run the event - the police or the local council[s] presumably.

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[Don Capps]

The first event to be truly representative of racing in anything remotely like the modern sense took place in September 1896 in Cranston, Rhode Island, at the Narragansett Track. The events used massed starts by the competitors, which would not become a feature of European racing until the Twenties, but was commonplace in American track racing from the very beginning. This meant that the competitors raced head-to-head rather than against a handicap or the clock, the latter being the standard for road races for a number of years in America as well as, of course, Europe.

This was the prototype event for American racing, the features of this event being adopted by promoters for many years to follow. Although I consider the Wisconsin event as a forerunner of what was to come, true automobile racing began in Rhode Island in September 1896.