Following the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup race, the Automobile Club de France (ACF) wasn’t interested anymore to participate in future Gordon Bennett Cups. Under the cup’s rules, every country was strictly limited to three entrants. France, boasting many dominant car manufacturers at the time, felt heavily disadvantaged by having the same grid allotment as nations with few or practically no automotive industry. In other words, they wanted a different contest. So, the ACF broke away to establish the first-ever Grand Prix de l’ACF of 1906, where entry counts were scaled based on a country’s total manufacturing output.
   One extra important factor requires notice, namely the French authorities were always sceptical to open road racing. From mid 1890’s on, open road races caused an ever increasing number of accidents with casualties, as a result from still higher vehicle speeds on roads that were lined with huge number of spectators, hardly being garded. Particularly after the carnage of the 1903 Paris-Madrid race, which was stopped in Bordeaux, the French authorties completely banned open road racing. So now, in any way or another, the automobile industry was forced to change toward closed road racing, meaning to circuits. In this view, the move of the ACF may even so be considered as an early “reading the sign on the wall”.
   Their proposals for a new series were published by the end of 1904. Much critic came from most of the other countries that participated in motor racing. A long discussion came up and, though France originally wanted to organise it’s first Grand Prix in 1905, it took some time before finally the 1906 Grand Prix started off.
(September 2026: this page is under construction).