In 1899, James Gordon Bennett announced his proposals for the races and handed them over to the French ACF. They then dustributed his proposals to the different national automobile clubs. During the course of 1899, the French ACF discussed then several additions; requests of some of the national  automobile clubs were gathered, leading finally to the accepted rules; some 22 in all!
   As I understand, the sequence for 1899 must have been something like: June 1899, the ACF confirms they have received JGB’s letter with his Cup proposals. July – September: discussion with different national clubs. End October: ACF publishes the original  version of the rules. November – December: some amendments are filed. End December: Finalising the rules and start of some furtherleading “quarreling”.
   The different publications that finally led to the definitive rules for the Gordon Bennet Cup races, as well as the discussions with several club members will be shown here; at least as much as I could find. I admit, there are hardly any to none photos that accompany these texts; but making pictures in 1899 on a subject such as rules is in the least a bit problemsome; wouldn’t be any different nowadays though. When going through the texts, at least one could get an impression on how institutions and their compadres thought and discussed about international motorracing.