by Julie Longstreet Wehmeyer

Created on: August 02, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

Traditionally considered a gentleman's sport, rallying is a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads with either modified or specially built cars that are road-legal. This type of racing is unique in that it is not performed on a circuit, but rather is a point-to-point race in which the competitors and their co-drivers drive between two set points. Rallies are won either by speed or by driving in stages within a predetermined journey time.

Motorcar rallying can be traced back to 1894 to the Paris-Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition which was sponsored by Le Petit Journal. This rally attracted tremendous interest and heralded the start of this very popular motorsport. The term "rally" came into being in January 1907 from the first Monte Carlo Rally. Even then, up until the late 1920's, very few events used the term "rally" even though that is what the event would be considered under today's definitions.

The Paris-Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition led to a period of city-to-city road races in many European countries. These competitions introduced many of the features that are found in rallies today individual start times, cars running against the clock as opposed to other drivers, time controls, and entry and exit points of towns, use of road books and maps, long distance driving, and facing hazards such as everyday dust, traffic, pedestrians and even the occasional farm animals.

One of the absolute greatest races during this time period was the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris Rally of July 1895. Won by Emile Levassor, his time for the 732 mile course was 48 hours and 48 minutes which was at an average speed of 15 mph!

When you take into consideration that just eight years later, the Mors of Fernand Gabriel, running the same roads, won the Paris-Madrid race in just under five and quarter hours for 342 miles at an average speed of 65.3 miles per hour, it is a testament to how quickly technology was advancing in motorcars.

At this point, speed far exceeded safety. The roads were mostly farm roads that were primarily dirt or gravel. It was a very dangerous sport. During these early races, there were numerous crashes with many injuries and even deaths to spectators and competitors. In 1903, the French government stopped the races and banned these events due to safety reasons.

However, road racing would not go away!

Despite the ban in many parts of Europe, road racing in Italy continued to thrive, and the country's first motorcar race was held in 1897 along

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