The Thomas Flyer

LeftRight

10/5/2000

The automobile was still a novelty and motoring still a marvelous adventure that cold morning of February 12, 1908 when six cars left Times Square to begin what must be regarded as the greatest automobile contest of all time, the race from New York to Paris. Modern-day endurance events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Baja 1000 and even the London-Sydney pale into insignificance in comparison.

The route was formidable. It crossed the United States, from New York to San Francisco, in winter, a feat never previously accomplished by automobile, traversed the island of Japan, the first cars ever seen in that country, and then, after restarting at Vladivostok, slogged across Siberia, Manchuria and on to Moscow, Berlin and Paris. The total distance was about 23,000 miles, over 13,000 of which was on land, and the winning car took 131 days to complete the journey, not counting days spent aboard ship. In comparison, the Peking to Paris of 1907 covered less than 9,000 miles and was accomplished in only 60 days by Prince Borghese in his Itala.

Oberlieutenant Hans Koeppen of the Fifteenth Prussian Infantry at 31, he was on leave from the German General Staff, and a correspondant for the Berlin Mittag Zeitung, an Ullstien newspaper. The Protos had a 4-cylinder engine and transmission, was 16 feet long, and carried 176 gallons of gas.  Although the Protos arrived in Paris 4 days before the Thomas, they were  penalized for shipping their car by rail from Idaho to Seattle, Washington after it broke down. Koeppen believed until his death in the early 1950's that he was the rightful winner of the race. The Italian entry, a Brixia-Zust, was a four cylinder chain-drive motorcar led by Antonio Scarfoglio and driven by Emilio Sirtori. It had a top speed of 60 miles per hour, and had a large red, white, and green Italian flag painted on the hood. The Zust was the third and last car to reach Paris almost one month after the other two. The only American entry was a 1907 Thomas Flyer built by the Thomas Motorcar Company of Buffalo, New York.  It was the lightest and the most powerful entry.  Although there were several team members throughout the course of the race, one man, George Schuster, was chiefly responsible for the Thomas victory.  Piloting the Thomas the entire journey Schuster's tenacity and stubborn refusal to quit  has made him one of the unsung heroes of automotive history. Here the victorious Thomas as it appeared in Paris on July 30, 1908.

If a race of such grand dimensions is difficult for the modern mind to conceive, so also is the popularity of the event. Today's race fans know nothing comparable to the huge excitement with which racing was regard in those early days of motoring. The New York Times estimated that a quarter of a million witnessed the start, jamming Times Square and solidly lining the race route for a distance of eight miles. And day after day, week after week, reports of the race were front page news.

Of the six cars that started, three were from France and there was one each from Germany, Italy, and the U.S. The U.S. entry was a 1907 Thomas Flyer taken from the company's new car lot only three days earlier. Most of the others were specially built or at least specially prepared for what was certain to be an arduous journey. The 40 horsepower German Protos, for example, was fitted with what appeared to be a pickup body 80 inches wide, sufficient for crosswise sleeping by the off-duty member of the three man crew. It also had seven fuel tanks for a total capacity of 176 gallons, and there was a complete canvas covering that was supposed to offer protection in inclement weather.

The Italian Zust was also well prepared, as were the Motobloc and De Dion-Bouton from France. Only the single cylinder Sizaire & Naudin, also from France, seemed unsuited for the contest.

From the start, the Thomas established itself as the car to beat. It's 4 cylinder 571 cubic inch engine developed 70 horsepower, making it the most powerful in the race. Also because there was no time to build a special body, it was also the lightest of the serious contestants, a considerable advantage because strain on the drive train and all other components was reduced.

Even so, the Thomas' run across the US, could hardly be described as trouble-free. Having had virtually no pre-race preparation the car stopped at the Thomas factory in Buffalo, NY for some quick refitting. In addition to the replacement of a malfunctioning cylinder, a straight front axle was substituted for the standard drop type in order to provide greater ground clearance, and 3-in. lift blocks were added on top of the axles. An auxillary 35 gallon fuel tank was installed, the oil reservoir was relocated, and the stock radius rods used to keep the driving chains in adjustment were replaced by heavier ones. The fenders were removed and heavy leather mud guards were attached to the 2 x12 elm planks that extended the full length of the car and were bolted to the fender braces to do double-duty when a temporary roadway was required.

The weather was frightful that winter. Roads were all but impassible because of deep snow. Not only had no car made the trip across the continent in winter at that time, but only nine complete crossings of the country had been recorded in any season of the year. So the difficulties faced by the contestants can hardly be exaggerated.

Even after the 24 hours spent in Buffalo while the car was being re-fitted, the Thomas was still the first car into Chicago, Ill., as it covered the 1403 miles in 13 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes (no they didn't time to the .001! ed.) The Italian Zust was second at that point arriving one day later with the De Dion third, the Potos well behind, the Motobloc struggling on with mechanical difficulties and the Sizaire & Naudin already retired.

West of Chicago the roads turned from snow to mud and time after time it was necessary to hire teams of horses to haul the vehicles through the worst holes. The Thomas enjoyed a considerable advantage in that there was occasional Thomas dealerships where parts were available and where dependable repairs could be made. Without these advantages it seems unlikely that the Thomas would have made it to San Francisco, because it was necessary to replace the transmission countershaft housings in Chicago, Laramie and Ogden, an operation that, each time, required removal of the body from the frame. In addition special braces were added to the counter shaft housings to help distribute concentrated stresses. George Shuster, who started the race as chief mechanic and was put in complete charge at San Francisco, wisely refused the offer of an enclosed body, realizing the Thomas's laden weight of 5000 pounds already was excessive for the conditions yet to be encountered by the vehicle.

In comparison to the cross-country record of just over 15 days, set by an air-cooled Franklin two summers earlier, the Thomas required 41 days to reach San Francisco. The Zust arrive 11 days later and the De Dion 2 days later. The Motobloc was now out of the race, having succumbed to mechanical ills in Iowa, and the Protos, with two broken rods and no replacements this side of the Atlantic, had been loaded onto a train in Idaho and shipped to Seattle, Washington.

The route originally planned for the race called for the cars to be sent by ship from San Francisco to Alaska where they would be driven down the frozen Yukon River and across the Bering Strait to Russia. The Thomas and crew docked in Valdez, Alaska, where it was quickly determined there was no possibility of driving this leg, then returned to Seattle where the car and it's crewmen set sail for Japan. The Zust, DeDion, and Thomas all crossed Japan, sharing adventures punctuated by rickshaw-width bridges and turns so sharp the cars had to be lifted around them, the teams of laborers manhandling the cars up and down grades so steep they could not be negotiated in any other way.

It was in Vladivostok that two serious complications arose.  First the De Dion factory withdrew, saying there was no point in continuing because this new route decided upon only after the Alaska-Bering Straight leg was scratched, duplicated much of the Peking to Paris route already covered by De Dion cars in 1907. Second, Lt. Koeppen, in charge of the Portos, although disqualified for having taken the train from Pocatello to Seattle shipped his still broken car directly to Vladivostok, saying he intended to continue, even though not officially a part of the race. In Vladivostok, the Protos was repaired by two experts from the factory who arrived with the necessary parts via the Trans-Siberian railway.  At this point the organizers decided to ignore the Protos' disqualification, access a 30-day penalty instead and re-instate it as an official entry. So again the race became a three car contest with the Thomas in the lead, the Zust in Second and the Protos third.

At the restart, on the Protos was read at the appointed hour and it went. The Thomas lost two hours while a clutch was repaired, then they were able to start, but the Zust, delayed while arranging for gasoline dumps along the route would stay in Vladivostok for 16 more days. The Zust was never a contender after this, but finally did arrive in Paris more than six weeks behind the other competitors.

For the Thomas and the Protos however, it was a race all the way. With it's 30 day handicap the German car had almost no chance to win overall, but there still was much glory to be gained by winning this long difficult leg and being the first car into Moscow, Berlin and Paris.

The story of the race across Manchuria and Siberia is one of the classics of motor racing. The roads, never much more than trails, had been used little since the completion of the Trans-Siberian railway in 1905, and now were not only ill defined, but more often non-existent. Adding to the difficulties, almost continuous rains created vast stretches of mud that required hour after hour of first gear running, when indeed, headway could be maintained at all.

Less than a hundred miles from Vladivostok, the Thomas came upon the Protos, its rear wheels all but out of sight in the mire.  In a celebrated gesture of sportsmanship, later immortalized by artist Peter Heick, the Thomas hauled the Protos out and in appreciation, Lt Koeppen passed around a bottle. George Schuster's handwritten diary of the race, now in the library at the Harrah's Automobile Collection in Reno, Nevada, says this bottle-contained cognac, but the legend that has come down through the year was transformed to Champaign. Indeed, it is even Champaign in Schuster's own book ``The Longest Auto Race" published in 1966.

Soon after this, the cars despaired of even getting free of the mud and took the railroad, straddling one rail and jolting along the tires. Schuster winced at every jolt knowing the toll it was taking on Thomas' fragile tires. At one point two days behind and desperately low on tires, though the car started from Vladivostok with eight spares, the crew wrapped the right hand tires with sash cord, trying to protect the sidewalls from damage by the rails. This was not successful, unfortunately, because the cords were cut by the rails and unwound to entangle themselves in the springs and driving chain.

Delayed with transmission trouble, the Thomas dropped as much as six days behind, after about 600 miles, then clawed desperately at the German's lead. At the ferry across Lake Baikal, another 900 miles father along, the Thomas did catch up, but alas, the Protos was already aboard and the Thomas had to wait 12 hours for the ferry to return.

The springs on the Thomas had sagged to such an extent by this time that the long planks were first bent upward to clear the tires, and finally cut off, shortened until they barely covered the wheels. An engine mount broke and this was splinted by jacking the frame up until it was straight again, and then bolting a length of angle iron into place.

About 3000 miles out of Vladivostok, the Thomas drove into the town of Tomsk just as the Protos was leaving. Then after driving 20 of the next 24 hours, the Thomas, grinding through the mud at 30 mph, caught and then passed the Protos. As Schuster later reported, ``Koeppen gave us a salute worthy of an ancient Teutonic knight."

A few days later they encountered Lt. Koeppen at a hotel along the route. The Protos was broken down four days behind and Koeppen, who had taken a train, was awaiting a new rear axle being shipped from Moscow.

There was no celebration, though, because the Thomas was also in trouble. The repaired pinion was making and ominous clucking noise. By the time it failed for good, the spare transmission had been located 250 miles ahead. Schuster hired a relay of horses and cart to go after it. As he was returning with the transmission the Protos rumbled past, new rear axle in place and making good time.

The Thomas never caught the Protos again, although the American team tried desperately. The car was in sad condition now, short on tires, the brakes gone and leaking constantly. Before the Thomas arrival in Paris, another motor mount failed, the frame broke in another place, the clutch had to be removed twice for repairs, and so on. In addition, a pigeon flew into the left front headlight, breaking it and rendering both carbide-driving lamps inoperable.

Ahead of the Thomas, the Protos arrived first in St. Petersburg to collect a $1000 prize, in Moscow to be received by the Czar and his family, then on to a frenzied celebration in Berlin, and finally to Paris. French nationalism and anti-German sentiment being what they were, the arrival of the Protos on Sunday afternoon, July 26, was greeted by stony silence.

In contrast, the Thomas received a hysterical welcome on it's arrival four days later. The streets were jammed for blocks around the victorious American car.

The Thomas had covered 13,341 miles, 3246 more than the Protos, which was officially 26 days behind. The Zust finally arrived on September 17^th.

Thus ended the greatest automobile race in the world.

Now begins another story… that of the Thomas itself. The Thomas Company did not prosper, even with the victory in the race, and sagged into receivership in 1913. At the auction of the company's assets, THE CAR was included with a number of other items as ``Lot One" and the high bidder was Charles B. Finnegan. Finnegan disposed of everything except the car, which quietly rusted away in a garage in Elma, N.Y., until shortly after Word War II when Mrs. Frances V. Du Pont purchased it. In 1948, Henry Austin Clark Jr. bought it from Mrs. Du Pont for his Long Island Auto Museum and in 1964, sold it to William Harrah of Reno. It was completely un-restored at this time, without tires, and was pitifully neglected.

George Schuster, then 91, was invited to examine the car for authenticity. Although skeptical of it being THE CAR he had driven in the race, be became convinced as the disassembly revealed repairs he remembered being made over half a century before.

The car was then restored in the Harrah shops, not to new condition, but to as nearly as possible the same condition as with it finished the race in Paris. The broken left headlamp is there, for example, as are the upturned wooden fenders and the length of tow-rope draped across the cowl.

The Thomas now rests on a low platform in the Harrah's Automobile Collection in Reno, holding a place of honor among the many distinguished automobiles on display along side of it. This is only appropriate for the greatest off-road racer of them all.