Paris–Rouen 1894
   The 1894 Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux (Paris-to-Rouen) was the world’s first organized competitive automotive event. Organized by the newspaper Le Petit Journal, the 126-kilometer trial aimed to evaluate the reliability, safety, and operational economy of horseless carriages rather than absolute speed. So it wasn’t a race as we would define it now. To qualify for “le concours”, the final run, vehicles had to demonstrate that they were easy to operate and financially practical.
   The whole event took several days: on 18 July a technical inspection; 19 – 21 July were three days of qualifying trials and 22 July was the final “concours”. At mid-course in Mantes, participants even had a lunch break of some one and a half hour, before heading further to Rouen.
   Although Count de Dion arrived in Rouen first, his steam-powered tractor was ineligible for the main prize. The judges ruled that the vehicle required a stoker to operate, which violated the regulation demanding that entries be simple to drive. Consequently, the 5,000-franc first prize was divided equally between manufacturers Peugeot and Panhard & Levassor. Both brands utilized petrol-powered internal combustion engines from Daimler; a German-France cooperation!
   The event also recorded the first competitive use of a steering wheel, featured on Alfred Vacheron’s Panhard.
   In total, 17 of the 21 starters completed the distance, providing early empirical evidence of the technical viability of mechanical transport. However, no decision could yet be made between petrol and steam; that would happen a year later when the travelling distance would be more than the short Paris-Rouen road. 
   To obtain a vivid impression of the events on this “Concours des Sans Chevaux”, one could have a look into the Petit Journal reports before-, during- and after the event. Most of these were written by Jean-Sans-Terre himself; no one else would know better on this event.