The New York to Paris Race

Way back in 1908 the true pioneers of the automobile industry put together an amazing around the world event starting in Times Square and finishing at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Very few people had even seen a car back then, yet the spirit of competition was alive and well and people really wanted to see just what they could do with these newfangled machines. Half a dozen or so cars actually left the New York start on a very cold and frosty morning and it was to be an amazing test of endurance, with many hurdles, problems and plenty of drawbacks to overcome. In the end, the humble Thomas Flyer came out victorious and the car that actually achieved that feat survives to this very day.

A century or more later a group of investors and automobile enthusiasts in New York decided that they would try and relive the glory of the New York to Paris Race once more. The Event Designs Company was commissioned to conduct a feasibility study to see if such an event was indeed possible. It had not been attempted for almost a century and even though we are a lot more sophisticated of course today, this was far from a straightforward proposition.

photographs from the actual route survey for the New York to Paris Race

Many months of preparation went into planning for the event. We stayed true to the original concept of the 1908 event, which had intended to travel across remote Siberia on the way to Paris. Even though many people said that there were no roads from the Northeastern Siberia coast on towards Moscow, our team was able to discover a route which would indeed cross some of the most amazing landscape in the world, heading for and circumnavigating the mystic Lake Baikal. Some of these roads did not exist on any maps whatsoever, but had been created when a spur of the trans-Siberian Railroad was built.

While the event was unfortunately shelved, due to consequences associated with the terrible events of 9/11, we continue to retain all the details of this route and associated logistics with the hope that one day we will indeed be able to celebrate those true pioneers.