Historic Sports Car Racing

The first historic sports car racing was organized by a Paris magazine Le Petit Journal in 1894. This aimed to have a reliable test to determine performance among the newly discovered petrol-fueled engines. The first successful petrol-fueled automobile was constructed in the late 19th century. And, in 1769, the first self-propelled car was built by a French military engineer named Nicolas Cugnot who developed a steam powered road vehicle for the French army to haul heavy cannons.

The truck can carry four tons in reputedly walking speed. It was not until 1886 when the first vehicles were built using internal combustion engines by two engineers living in two separate towns in Germany. They were Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. This began the modern motor cars. Four years later, the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine was built by Wilhelm Maybach. He then developed the spray-nozzle carburetor in 1893, which became the basis of today’s carburetor technology. This is the progenitor of the historic sports car racing.

A decade later, Maybach developed a race car using lightweight metals fitted with a 35-hp four-cylinder engine and two carburetors. The engine reached a world speed record of 64.4 km/h. This car was named Mercedes.

Historic sports car racing started as chases from town to town that later became an organized event to test the performance of both the car and the driver. This earlier need for speed motivated car engineers to develop high-speed engines.

In 1894, the first sports car racing was born that ran from Paris to Bordeaux. The winner was Émile Levassor whose car was not the required four-seater and was disqualified. From then on, car racing has become a multi-million dollar yearly spectator sport event. Historic sports car racing was often held on open roads that lead to high incidence of fatality among drivers and spectators alike. To promote safety, race track now evolved into a closed circuit with a minimum stretch of 1,000 kilometers and involves several classes. Example of which are the two prototype classes, LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) and LMP2.

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