From 1896 to 1900, several City-to-City Races were organized, as well ass more speed contests such as the Tour de France (yes, already then) of the Tour du Côte du Gaillion or the Course du Catalogue. Some more are the 1897 Paris-Dieppe trial, the 1898 Marseille-Nice course and the 1899 Paris-Bordeaux course.  
   The best known and most popular contest of that era will be discussed here, mentioning many French papers as well as some US magazines.
   The highlight of the 1896 motorsport season was the Paris–Marseille–Paris race, organized for the first time by the then newly founded Automobile Club de France, in which 32 vehicles competed from September 24 to October 3, 1896. Only two steam-powered vehicles remained among them; at that time the gasoline-powered vehicles had become the standard. For the first time, the participating vehicles were divided into several classes thus ensuring some kind of leveling out. The four classes were: A-Series 1 (heavy automobiles), A-Series 2 (light automobiles), B (motorcycles) and C (motor tricycles). The route consisted of ten (10!) daily stages from Paris via Dijon and Lyon to Marseille and back, covering a total of 1,711 km. The fastest overall was Émile Mayade, driving for the first time a four-cylinder Panhard & Levassor at an average speed of around 25 km/h. Paul Viet in a De Dion-Bouton Tricycle, with a time of just over 70 hours, took only about 2 hours and 20 minutes longer than Mayade in his race car. Such a small difference of less than 3%. 
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